Hello Monday is it a fun day Monday, well I guess that would depend on the person. It is pretty fun for Blain and Leo they are outside playing handball at the moment, in fact this morning Blain rang and asked if Leo could come over to play for a while.

I overslept this morning it was 8am when I woke up, so didn’t go for a walk as I just couldn’t get motivated to do so, although my arms got a bit of work out. Why you wonder well I did a load of washing and when I went to get it out of the machine and peg it out on the line it was all covered in white fluff, looks like someone left a tissue in a pocket. So that meant I had to shake the clothes out as I was hanging them up.

This is the last week of school holidays here, school goes back on Thursday so there is only two days of school this week, first time is for 10 weeks, for those who do not know our school year runs from January to December and there are 4 school terms a year each for around 10 weeks.

Natasha has gone to work, the boys and in the bedroom playing Xbox and soon Tim will be going out the back to continue to work a project he started yesterday I will show photos of it when he is finished.

Just cooked a home-made pizza I do not know if the boys will eat it but we will see, I used puff pastry for the base and just tomato paste not pizza sauce.

Hello world, it is now Sunday afternoon here, we had the girls over for lunch thought we were having silverside with veggies, but when we cut the meat it wasn’t silverside (corn beef) it was roast beef must have been a pot roast, not that I buy pot roast but must have done. The girls all asked what was written on the package, I don’t know it was in the bin and not the laundry bin but the outside bin, so no bloody way I was going looking for it.

Yesterday afternoon Tim sent me a message saying if the boys (Blain & Leo) would like a bus ride with papa and they did, so nanna walked them to the bus stop so we had an hour & half without and children here just me and Natasha who was asleep on the lounge.

Ok I started this post about 3 hours ago, yeah 3 bloody hours ago but had to stop for one thing after another. Anyway Tim and I went out to Bunnings (hardware store) to get some wood Tim is going to construct some kind of bed for Leo to sleep on when he is here. I went along as I wanted to go to Kmart to get school pants for the boys, cost me $65 for 4 pairs of long pants 2 for each boy, shorts for Leo and shoes for Leo. I had already bought school socks for both boys at a cost of $12.

It is now 3pm and Jessica and Leo have just left and only because when Tim and I got home Natasha was annoyed because he wanted her to move her car in order to get the wood out of the boot and in her little temper tantrum she managed to break off one of the hooks I have for key near the front door which made me have a little temper tantrum so Jessica decided it was time to go home. Of course both me and Natasha are over it we spat the dummy and then moved on.

Tim is now on a mission to get the bed made while he is off work for a couple of days, he doesn’t go back till Wednesday now, as Tuesday is a public holiday being that it is Australia Day and also Tim’s 55^th birthday.

I am sitting here eating a Tim Tam and thinking what should I write about and you know I am coming up with nothing but the Tim Tam is nice I am right into them at the moment, If you don’t know a Tim Tam is a chocolate biscuit but not just a chocolate biscuit it is the best damn chocolate biscuit. There a many types of Tim Tam’s but I prefer the original it is the best I think. http://www.arnotts.com.au/products/tim-tam/

So because I can’t think of anything to write about I am just going to post this dribble

Not a good photo of me but what the hell, no photos are good with me in them

Good morning world, it is going to be another bloody hot day here although at the moment it is nice I, however, have woken up feeling like shit, I ache all over and I have a terrible headache so I went for a small walk this morning it was bad enough walking from the bedroom to the lounge room. I walk out to the lounge room and Natasha isn’t here she isn’t in her room or in Tim’s office in fact she is no where to be seen so I am guessing she has gone for her walk this morning.

I am sitting here thinking and looking at the Christmas Cards on the wall in front of me and thinking I really should take them down and toss them in the bin but not right now as I can’t be bothered to do anything with them, it just seems to be to much work to do so that is how terrible I am feeling.

You know I am wearing shorts at the moment and it is cool but I guess that will change soon enough.

Today I want to answer the small pile of letters I have here there is 9 letters to answer so that is on the to do list for today.

Did you know that the first recorded handwritten letter was by the Persian Queen Atossa around 500BC, and the stamped letter we know today came about during the time of Queen Victoria around the year of 1840. I think we all know that before that letters didn’t have stamps or even envelopes, letters were folded and sealed by wax and usually the receiver had to pay for it when it arrived.

Of course letters are usually thought of as a more personal form of communication than emails or text messaging. Although there are many different types of letters there are personal letters which include not only letters but Christmas cards and letters which can be in a relaxed chatting type tone. Then there are business letters and for a long time bills, often for many people they would feel the only “person” to write to them would be “Bill” asking for money.

Now of course we usually get bills via email, in fact many companies will charge you extra if they send a paper bill in the mail, this I think is wrong as there are people who do not have email. My parents fall into this category even though both of them have email accounts, dad will check his emails but often he will delete stuff without bothering to read it and mum she doesn’t check hers as she doesn’t have a computer or tablet and doesn’t know how to check her email she would like to be able to check her emails. So I think a company shouldn’t charge extra to send a paper bill if the receiver doesn’t have email.

Now did you know that in the 1800’s it was believed that excellent letter writing was a sign of good breeding, and strict rules had to be observed when writing a letter, these include the following.

• Have neat handwriting

• Use elegant words

• Know how to fold a letter

• Sign your name to every letter

• Use an acceptable ink colour (not sure what that colour would be)

Of course there were no no’s when writing a letter such as

• Including a postscript

• Crossed out or erased misspelled words, you were expected to start over again

• Underlined or abbreviate words

So how would you go following those rules I don’t think I would do ok at all as I am not sure what elegant words are and what the hell are acceptable ink colours, would the purple or pink that I often use be considered acceptable I don’t think so.

Now let’s move onto the cost of sending a letter, did you know that the first prepaid stamp for a nationwide postal service was introduced by Great Britain in May 1940 with the Penny Black stamp for letters under half an ounce and the Twopenny Blue for stamps for heavier letters.

The United States introduced a limited postal service in August 1942 followed by a uniformed 5 cents charge in 1845 and standardised stamps in 1847.

In Australia, we have used postmarks from as early as 1812 but it wasn’t till around 1850 that a system was introduced where the person sending the letter paid for the postage, this is how postage stamps began, by around 1860 every state or colony in Australia had stamps.

Hi everyone, it is now Monday and I have hardly looked at the computer since Thursday just been one thing after another.

Anyway here I am today I spent the morning reading some blogs as well as taking Natasha to Charlie to hand in forms to the Dept. of Housing, she has reapplied for public housing we got to the office just after 9am and left around 10.30am most of the time was spent waiting. After giving up the place she had in Windale the client service officer sent out new forms along with a hand written not that said that Natasha would be treated as high priority as she left under duress.

Now I am home alone for a few hours as Natasha and Tim are both at work and Blain is at his dad’s place so all good, as everyone knows how I like to be home alone.

My weekend was spent mostly at home doing nothing much, this is mostly due to the weather as it rained pretty much the whole weekend. I did go out to return some pants to Kmart and looked for another pair of black leggings which thankfully I found at Target for only $8. I find that Friday’s are too busy with things like going to the chemist and going to Woolworths and Coles doing food type shopping so any other shopping I want to do I now do on Saturday morning.

On Sunday Kathy and Summer along with Jessica and Leo came over for lunch but it wasn’t a good day as Natasha was annoyed with Kathy about something and when Natasha is annoyed she has this tone. Well Kathy didn’t like Natasha talking to her with that tone and they ended up getting into it and then Kathy and Summer left and yes Kathy was really pissed off with her sister.

I, however, didn’t want to get involved, I understood why Natasha was annoyed and I understood why Kathy was upset with the tone that Natasha took with her, but all in all I didn’t want to get involved. That said I was upset and I was unable to eat much as I was upset about the girls fighting.

Across the years I will walk with you

In deep green forests on shores of sand

When our time on earth is through

In heaven too you will have my hand

Marriage is like a deck of cards

in the beginning all you need is

two hearts and a diamond

by the end you have a

club and a spade

So yesterday you got day 1 of my 2 day stay in Canberra so today you get day 2, this is our third night here and wow has it cooled down this afternoon, after yet another stinking bloody hot feel like one could melt day it is now lovely. Tim just opened all the windows in the cabin and the breeze is lovely.

I just told Tim if we are just going home tomorrow and not doing any sight seeing first I may not bother with a shower as I just don’t feel like it.

I think I might have mentioned last night that my feet are getting so sore after only a couple of hours wearing my joggers this is new I used to be able to wear them pretty much all day without a problem. Now after only a couple of hours my toes curl and my feet swell up and near my big toe on my right foot becomes quiet sore. I hope I am not getting a bunion I will have to ask mum if the women in the family are prone to bunions.

Anyway what did we do today, we went to the railway museum and then we drove out to check out a chocolate factory took 35 minutes to get there only to find they are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday what a shit. Of course Jessica had to complain that I didn’t bother to check if they were open.

We then went to KFC for lunch which was ok, then we went to check out the Australian War Memorial which I loved if only my feet and back didn’t hurt so much from the walking. I think Leo liked it more or less and Jessica well let me ask her, she said it was alright. Leo thought the tanks were awesome.

Tea/dinner tonight was fried egg on a bread rolls with cream cheese something I quiet like, would had been better if we had bacon but didn’t so no use complaining about it as Jessica would say she wanted to buy bacon. I finished off my wine lasted me two nights so not too bad. Jessica made herself scrambled eggs and Leo had cocktail frankfurts and nuttlea sandwiches, Tim made himself a sandwich but only ate half of it.

So that is all I have for this post, still no photos because of limited internet.

Hi all it is now Monday afternoon and what a full day we have had, I woke Jessica at around 8ish to go to Macca’s for breakfast before we headed to the dinosaur museum only to find they didn’t open till 10am so we ended up going to Cockington Green which is garden with miniature buildings it wasn’t free though and we had to pay $19.50 per adult and $11.50 for Leo, if you are interested in knowing more go here: http://www.cockingtongreen.com.au/

Thankfully Cockington Green was pretty much across the road from the dinosaur museum, of course the main reason for the trip was to go to the dinosaur museum as Leo loves dinosaurs, Leo also too his toy dinosaur “Harris” with him to the museum to check it out. His mum also bought him a large green plush dinosaur who he has named Green Arrow Leefin Meadows. Harris doesn’t have middle name as when Leo got Harris 6 years ago he didn’t know about middle names and it is too late now to give him one, according to Leo. Jessica also bought a plush dinosaur for her collection who is called Roar-Roar Roar Meadows

We finished off our sight seeing with a trip to the Royal Australian Mint where they make our coins the paper money is firstly not made out of paper but polymer is printed in Melbourne. http://www.ramint.gov.au/

While at the mint my feet started to really hurt, and I ended up taking my shoes off and walking around with just my socks on, something I would not have dreamed of doing a few years back but I have reached the age where I chose comfort first fashion second.

So when we called in at Coles (supermarket) I didn’t bother putting my shoes back on and felt ok walking in just my socks, I could have tried walking barefoot but I don’t like that just saying. Socks I am ok with barefoot not so much unless of course when I am home where in summer I rarely wear any type of footwear. Tim said I should had worn my thongs but no thank you I find that the thongs I have also hurt me feet after a short while.

So now we are back at the cabin, Leo is in bedroom playing with his toys and Jessica is reading via her ipad and Tim is reading his bible and I am writing a blog post, with no tv on as background noise. Wow how things have changed wasn’t too long ago both Tim and I liked to have the tv on for background noise now both of us have times when we like the quiet, I do more then Tim but he is beginning to like the quiet more and more.

Hello bloggers, it is now Sunday in my part of the world and what a Sunday I have had, spent most of the day napping in the passenger seat while Tim drove us and by us I mean me, him, Jessica and Leo to Canberra. Ok we are not in Canberra we are at Queanbeyan which is about 20 minutes from Canberra.

Why are we here you are wondering, or maybe you are thinking what Jo-Anne you’re having another holiday. Yes we are having a short break away, Jessica wanted to do something for Leo’s birthday and I found a deal on Scoopon for pretty cheap tickets into the Dinosaur Museum and we all know that Leo loves dinosaurs.

It took about 4 hours to drive from home to here, Leo was good on the trip but he is bit full on at the moment because we didn’t think to give him his Ritalin on the way here and when we arrived it was too late in the afternoon to give it to him. We have an hour and half before we can give him his night time medication.

We are staying at Riverside Tourist Park, in a cabin, the cabin is ok although I think the air con could be better, but over all not to bad cost is $95 per night for the 4 of us. I packed sheets and when I went to make the bed I discovered that I packed single bed sheets.

Ok since I am tired I am and really don’t feel like doing much of anything I will just post this and see you all tomorrow, oh while away I will not be reading blog post since have to limit what I do online due to limited internet time.

Hey hey it’s Saturday, and what a Saturday, I woke up at 2.45am to go to the toilet and as I do every time I get up during the night I glanced out the window and couldn’t see Natasha’s car, she parks on the front lawn near the front door and her car was not there. I even walked out to the lounge room and checked outside and no her car was not there.

She got home around 3am and like many people she likes to sit up watch a little telly before she goes to bed, so she has not had a lot of sleep today, she was up with Blain around 7am. I asked her why she was so late home, the answer she was asked to do another job at the last minute and so she was really late.

Tasha and I went over to Jessica’s place for lunch, she was having a bit of a party for Leo who turned 8 on Friday, there was only family at the party and all she did in way of food was buy fish and chips.

Blain said before we left he didn’t want to go but Natasha had a talk to him and basically said you’re going so, I told him to suck it up and deal. Of course once we got there he was find running around playing with his cousins and had a good time.

Kathy looked uncomfortable she said she felt like she didn’t fit in, she sounded like her dad, Tim often says he doesn’t fit in when we go to my parents place, maybe it was because Jess, Kelli and a friend Jess has staying with her were loud and having a good time. Natasha was also quiet but I think that had a bit to do with the fact she only had a couple of hours sleep and was so tired.

Since coming home Blain and Tasha have been watching movies and eating popcorn, it has been a nice warmish day.