Life

Life goes on.

Both my boys had birthdays this month. We were good and took lots of photos, unfortunately they are stuck on the network PC and I can't upload them now.

MrT had a party with 9 friends from school. They had a blast, and I'm so happy for them.
MrM had a quiet bday and managed to blow out his candle this year. Yay!

So much more to say and do ... where to find the time and the words?? It's lucky that life goes on!

Mother Nature

The worst bushfire disaster in Australia's history continues. Victoria burns. QLD is flooded. Madness.

Last I heard this morning the death toll from the fires surpassed 180 (with more expected, as search and recovery continues) with over 1000 homes lost. The tragedy is hard to comprehend, and for the most part I'm trying to ignore news updates as the news is too hard to take in. I've also been disgusted to see TV getting right in the faces of people during tearful reunions at evacuation centres. I guess I can understand that after all the bad news TV shows are hoping for exclusive good news stories. It just seems such an invasion of privacy.

I'm pretty sure all my nearest and dearest are safe. Mum and Dad were fortunate in that they had big fires come through the week before, as they had pretty much the entire state's fire fighting resources defending their town. I think about 30 properties on the outskirts of town were destroyed, thankfully no deaths. At the time it was horrific. Mum and Dad were one of about 6 families in the town that decided to saty and defend their homes. Apparently flying embers from the main fire front caused spot fires in the vacant land surrounding their house block.

Who would have thought that having such a fierce fire was actually a good thing, but it proved to be. It created a large firebreak for the town, so that while fires this week have been close there is nothing left to burn.

and now, back to your regular programming

My impromptu trip to Anaheim is over. I got back home yesterday, and it's now back to normal life. DH did a pretty good job keeping the house organised and the kids entertained. There were a couple of minor tasks that needed to be done that were missed, but never mind.

I had a great time away. I thought I'd miss the kids more than I did, but I guess being so busy and tired had it's advantages.

The CHA show was much smaller and quieter than last year. I think maybe a third smaller. Lots of big players chose not to exhibit. I scary sign of the economy and the state of the industry. The only buzz in the whole event was the appearance of Paris Hilton as she launched her own scrapbook line called pariscreativity. Very much marketted at the tween market and destined to be found at mass distribution chains like Michael's in the US, and Spotlight in Aus/NZ.

The show finished on Wednesday. That evening I walked 2 miles (!!!) for icecream. It was a silly thing to do, especially as it was winter and not what you would call icecream weather. I partly did it out of a sense of obligation. DH had gone to much trouble finding the nearest store that had my favourite flavour, which is not available in Australia. Devouring a full pint of icecream in one night does sound pretty horrendous, but gosh, it was delicious!!

My icecream binge fuelled me for Disneyland the next day. A group of 5 of us went, but only Kristy and myself are fans of BIG rides. We had a blast, numbers in the park were low too, so we were able to have multiple rides without long queues. I was sad that I had to leave early to catch my flight home - missed the fireworks etc.

Glad to be home.