G'day all,

What a busy time it is for me, I thought I would start a new thread to relax a bit
DH is away til the end of the month in Malaysia so I am now doing his little part time job as well, a bit more challenging then I initially thought
I have also yet another website to do for someone who wants to rent out their holiday home over the net and of course I am called on to look after either Matilda or Poppy or both!!!!
We got our Navman F20 with all the American maps (bought direct from america over the internet) .
We thought we would buy the software for the Australian maps so we could have a practice before we go.
To buy the Australian maps from the Navman site it would have cost us $350.00, I found a UK site and they charged me......$120 and that included the postage
It is hard to believe but yesterday I received it and it works a treat!
So all in all we spent a little less then $500 buying it all on-line when it would have cost us over $1000 had we bought it all the convential way.

I was out first thing this morning to get some shopping and I now intend to stay home with the aircon as it is yet another very hot day.

By now I guess Slavika will be in Maui, hope you will enjoy the warmth of Maui.
Good to hear Glenda is well and as far as I can gather everyone else is well as well

Take care all,

Cheers
Maria

I am so glad to be posting again. Hallelujah! So, Slavika is in Maui and Karen is home and Trudy is an official senior. Wow! Trudy, I just hope you get over your cold soon. We are being warned over and over again that this weekend we will have ice and icy air from your part of the world. Brrrr!

Maria, congrats on the new baby! It took us a long time to get a girl and you have 3 of them already! So is Matilda getting used to her baby sister? When Austin got a new baby brother, he went through a real ordeal where his regular babysitter had to tell his parents she couldn't handle him anymore. It took about 6 weeks before he got back to normal. Must have been traumatic but now, of course, those two can't be separated.

It was nice to hear a little bit from Lily again. Guess everybody is well and managing well. Are any of you kind of sick of seeing the commercials for weight loss? I do not like the young girl who just ahhhhhs! and ooooohs! because she used to be a SIZE 10! And now she is a size 2! Oh my! Poor baby! (Being a bit sarcastic!) But I cannot relate AT ALL!
Glenda

G'day all,

Good to see you Glenda and that you are all well and chirpy again

Matilda is fine with little Poppy, she sort of ignores her a bit but every now and then has the urge to kiss Poppy. Poppy is a very good little baby but I think a lot has to do with her mother, she is so casual and relaxed and that is certainly is reflected in Poppy. She is back training again and when I called in the other night she was about to leave with Poppy in one arm (a bit like a handbag!) her training gear in the other She assured me she would not be doing too much training. DS is still on holidays so all is working quite well for them.

I have always been sick of all these weight loss advertisements , if it was so easy none of us would be struggling.

DH is getting homesick in Malaysia, he has only been there a week the extra spending money he is earning is a good incentive to get over the homesickness

I had a bad nights sleep, at 3.45am my smoke alarm went off, have no idea why as there was no smoke and the batteries have just been replaced. I investigated everything and the alarm went off again by itself I went back to bed and then just laid awake thinking about everything and by 5.15 I thought I might as well get up!

Hope I have a better sleep tonight.

Cheers
Maria

Maria, that is so creepy! It is always worse when you are alone too. Can you ask somebody's opinion to see why it is screeching when no smoke? Regarding your DIL, I just always have to remember that young people raising kids have so much more energy than we do. And that is a good thing. I am always amazed I raised 3 kids in my little house. How did I do it?

I joined a Lighten Up team here at work and wish now I hadn't. It is a commitment until May. Yuck! We weigh once a week in a lady's office and we eat together on Friday. Maybe I will get inspired soon.

I have two weeks of talking stored up. Where is everyone else?

Hi everyone: I guess I have been among the missing again. And not for any particular reason either.

Trudy: Now you are a member of the retired elite. Hope by now your cold is better. I have been fighting one since December 11, and got antibiotics and all, but I still have a cough that drives me batty. (battier than usual) : There was an article in our newspaper that said that everyone who had the particular virus going around could expect to cough for at least a month after the worst was over. I am well into the month.

Slavika: Your Maui vacation is sounding lovely. I must admit that I wouldn't have enjoyed the Tsunami scare, but thankfully it didn't materialize.

Maria: That is a bit disconcerting to have the smoke alarm go off in the middle of the night, and with no reason. And being alone doesn't help I'm sure. It sounds like you are getting very well prepared for your trip. It sounds like Matilda is adjusting very well to Poppy being there. Hope you get all your work done easily.

Glenda: It is nice that you are feeling better, And I agree with you I get tired of all the weight loss adds. They always make it sound so easy, and that 'just eat their food' and you will lose weight, guaranteed. There are several adds that really irritate me. We have one for the Boys Club, where a man and his dog are in the park. And the dog gets shaking this pink pillow thing, and the man makes him leave it alone, saying it must be somebodys butt, they lost while playing with their kids. I mute the station when that one comes on. It doesn't really make much sense to me. Just irritating.

We have started rehearsals for our spring show now. I think that it will be fun. We are doing a patriotic show, and one that covers a bit of American history. Everyone seems to be liking the music, and especially since it is not too hard.

Hi Karen, Gloria, Peggy, Bernice- You too seem to be among the missing. I hope that none of you are battling the bad colds that are touring the country.

I'll try to be better about posting. Ann

G'day all,

A very eventful couple of days.....

Late yesterday afternoon I looked after Poppy whilst David, Peta and Matilda went to the beach. When they returned David went to the shops and Peta and Matilda looked at some photos, the next thing we heard this allmighty crash, we both flew outside, immediately thinking of David and found a smashed in car out the front of my place on the road, we didn't realise that the red car was at the end of my drive in my neighbours front!
The lady evidently did not give way and the other car going at high speed, hit her. Four young lads were in the other car (heap of rusted metal that passes as a car) None were hurt but all were in shock.
The car was pushed off the road and in no time people came from everywhere to offer assistance. Peta is a police woman and knew what had to be done, we got some wet towels from my house and then a doctor and a nurse 'happen' to be passing and came to help.
Before we knew it there were 2 fire trucks, 4 police cars and 2 ambulances.
The 'jaws' of life opened the red car like a tin of sardines, amazing.
The daughter of the injured woman told me that her mother has very bad osteo perosis and was hospitalised last week when she broke a bone by coughing
The ambulance people were amazed she was conscious but she was in a lot of pain.
When something like this happens and I have never witnessed anything like this first hand before, you have to take your hat off to all those services who are there almost immediately to assist.
I would prefer not to witness where some of my taxes go but any taxes going to support these people is well spent.
The picture attached is the car before the tow truck came to collect it, my house is on the left.

On a brighter note, I have a free voucher to get a session at 'Curves' which I will be trying when the weather cools, 40 degrees today
Curves has not been long in Australia and I have heard some of you talk about it so i thought I would give it a go. I will have to be as fit as I can for my America adventure!

Slavika good to see you post and good to here the Tsunami petered out and all is well. I am really pleased to hear that you have found it OK to be in Maui and that you are enjoying the warmth.

Ann you are busy as usual, as patriotic show sounds good. The hardest thing will be what to leave out with a history as rich as Americas.

Glenda 'Lighter Up' sounds interesting but I am a bit like you, I cannot be bothered with any commitments. If I have to pay a joining fee for Curves (I read on a website that the joining fee is $149.00) I won't be doing it.
I may continue with it for quite some time but I do not want to fork out $149.00 in case I decide that it is not for me.

'Hi' to everyone else, hope your days have been less eventful then my day yesterday!

Cheers
Maria

Another 'missing' member is speaking up. Until just recently nothing was going on in my life. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, dr's visits....and on and on.
Then,right after the new year we heard from all four kids and they are getting together on a 50th Anniversary celebration for us. We were told to keep the 2nd week of July free. DS and his family will be coming up from NC and every one else will be here. Hurray! DS was planning to go to Ca to visit his wife's sister and her family this summer but changed his plans they the CA family said they would love to see Cape Cod so they are coming East. His MIL who lives only a block from him in NC will be here as well. It seems the for once all four are 'working well with others' as one of them put it. They are reserving a room at a local restaurant, one that we love, and I am sure there will be lots of back and forth between the various local homes. We can hardly wait.
DH said the we should consider getting new LR furniture and I don't disagree. It is 20 years old and is the only room for reading, watching TV and anything else that requires comfortable seating thus it gets a lot of wear.

Maria Your progressing nicely in your trip preparation. That Navman should come in handy. I wonder if you had windows open and wind was the culprit in the smoke alarm problem. My first floor smoke alarm is always going off when I cook but I can understand that. We just got carbon monoxide detectors, one for each floor. It is now a law the you must have them especially if you want to sell your home. We are not selling but thought it was a good idea to get them....I just hope they don't go off!

Slavika Happy to seeing you are enjoying Maui. That was some scare about the Tsunami but that it was a false alarm was a good thing. We are definitely getting into the Winter season, finally so enjoy the great sun and sea while you can.

Glenda I know what you mean about raising your family in a small house. I often look around and wonder how we lived with 4 kids in a 3 bedroom house.

Ann Sorry to hear your cough is staying with you for so long. That is a very tiring thing to go through. We are just starting our Winter and you are beginning your Spring musical....I hope our Spring will follow as rapidly.

Trudy I hope you are feeling better.

Gloria PS: Our Anniversary isn't really until September

Gloria: A lovely family celebration is great, and who cares if it is early. The great part is all the kids are doing it for you and agreeing about it.: And now you are finally getting winter.

Maria: What a bit of excitement you had. It is amazing that the folks in the red car weren't injured more that you said. It was certainly a pile a junk but the time the 'Jaws' got finished with it. It is wonderful what all the proper authorities are trained to do, and do it so well. Your photos might come in handy for insurance purposes and court and all that stuff. I hope you like Curves. I do like it, and I have been a member now for three years. I pay once a month. Wait a bit and sometimes they have specials where the fee is reduced for joining.

Glenda: Hope all those storms have not affected you too badly. Ice and sleet are bad for travel, that is for sure. I'm glad that we don't have to face that anymore.

I am fighting what I would call a 'hot' tooth. And deliberating about calling the dentist. I don't want another big dentist bill, and so am hoping that it will ease off a bit. It has a crown on it, and I am afraid that I will probably lose the tooth.

I work at the church office this afternoon, and then tomorrow we are driving for a car dealership. It is an easy morning, and we get paid. Never a dull moment around here.

We sold tickets at our coffee hour for our Showtime program coming up in Feb. We have to sell 120 tickets to break even. Right now we have 49. We have to push some more.

Happy January to you all. Ann

Maria, I couldn't quite picture what happened in the wreck. Was the car in the picture your neighbor's car? She was backing out of her driveway? So, if that is true, she was at fault, right? I was just trying to understand the scenario. Just glad no one was hurt, but that is not the way to liven up a day.

We are still in the grip of winter. You all may have seen us in the news. Oklahoma had a huge ice storm, but we didn't lose our electricty. So many people did who had frozen rain. And trees fell on houses and it is just a mess. Our roads are still pretty bad, but we made it to work the last two days. You really have to concentrate to drive. And, we just heard snow is coming this weekend. What happened to that global warming stuff? But, as I understand it, unusual weather is a sign of the global warming and this is very unusual.

Ann, you and Trudy have not been faring too well with your coughs and illnesses. Seems the only thing is to endure and it will finally go away. Ann, you do know how I would love to trade homes for awhile. I would love some real sunshine rather than this watery bright stuff.

Slavika, you seem to be having a good time. When does the family come over? I know it is different without your David. I have thought a lot about how much my hubby does for me and how lost I would be, but you are doing well. And I am glad that Maui is a good tonic for you. Shop and eat and shop some more.

Karen, you haven't said much about your holiday. Is your mom doing okay? I am glad you got to spend so much time with your family. Did you get a dose of cold weather?

Gloria, how nice that your whole family will be here for the big celebration! And it is always wonderful when they work together so well. 50 years! We aren't too far behind, working on the 44th year. I know it will be fun, especially when they will be visiting back and forth. I remember doing this for my mom and dad and my daddy was just so appreciative of getting to visit with his old friends. That was a good memory.

Send me warming vibes. Please! By the way, I lost 2 pounds this week!

G'day all,

Glenda I can understand that it is confusing but the car belonged to a person who did not give way to her right, was hit, got airborn and somehow landed where she did some fifty meters from the intersection.
The drive on the photo is MY drive!! I still cannot fathom how that car got where it did, it is a long way from the intersection
By the way good work on the loss of 2 pounds!

Ann that is good to hear that you are still a member of Curves. It has been very hot and I have been very busy but I will soon go and use my free visit and see what it is like.
Good luck with the selling of tickets for your show, all these sort of things are hard work.

Gloria your anniversary celebrations sound great. What a nice lot of kids you have to organise that for the both of you.

DH is returning from Malaysia on Sunday morning at 9am and has a meeting at our house in the afternoon and then the kids for a roast dinner at night. I hope he gets some sleep on his flight otherwise he is going to find the day hard going!

We are supposed to be getting a tropical type storm with a lot of rain. Everything is so dry and so many things have died because the lack of water, I certainly hope we get the rain. I checked the satellite image and it does not look too promising, it may go around us

Cheers
Maria

Finished my driving experience in good time. We each drove six different cars, from the dealership to a lot by the mall near it, about 5 miles away. I tis rather fun and I get to drive different types of cars, that ordinarily I would not have the chance to. I drove an Explorer today, and I really didn't like it. It seemed a bit top-heavy, but I suppose that is because we have a little Kia Optima now.

We woke up to think fog, but it burned off by about 9:30. I don't like to drive in fog. and Glenda i sure don't like to drive on ice and snow. I had my fill of that for years, and that is reason number 2 why we are now in Florida.

According to the weather channel this a.m., it looked like Gloria will be getting some bad weather too.
Keep warm you gals, and Peggy too is getting some of it.

'See' you later. Ann

G'day all,

It's RAINING
It doesn't mean the end of the drought but it will bring relieve for all the bush firefighters and my garden is loving having a drink at last!

I have been watching some of the weather being experienced in the US. I hope we will not experience having to drive in the snow.

Do you have to drive with chains around your tyres in the snow?

In the alpine region of Australia, it is illegal to drive in the snow without chains. As most of us would never experience driving in the snow, you can hire them before going into the mountains.

Good luck with the choice of your car Ann.

Cheers
Maria

Maria: Hope you are enjoying the rain. We could use some now, as we are going on water restrictions for our whole county. I'm not looking for a new caar for us. We did that for our Christmas present to ourselves. We got a Kia Optima and like it very much. I still enjoy driving all different kinds of cars. I did drive the new Nissan Versa and that is a nice little car. Peppy and has very good gas mileage. But we are committed to our Kia. One of the very good features of the Kia is the 100,000 mile warrantee. Few other cars have that. I think the Hundai is the only other one.

Glad that the map site might be useful to you.

good morning everyone. Hope none of you are snowed in.

Ann

We have had just the worst ice storm I ever remember. It has been a week today and when we drove out of the driveway this morning, there were still no tracks made by our car. Still just ice. Yesterday the temperatures got above freezing so it isn't nearly as bad as it was, but there is another snow storm brewing, supposed to start snowing tonight. AND we are having a couples' weekend this weekend. Might turn into longer than a weekend. They are still coming, my sister, brother and spouses, but we might all be housebound for a while. It is a good thing we get along so well.

Maria, no we are not required to drive with chains on our tires. My boss used to live in Idaho and there were places there that young people took people from city to city for a price because they had the chains on their tires. Yuck! I sure hope our weather is just a fluke. I never signed on for this type of weather. And yea, for your rain. We are in the midst of a drought and I almost welcome the ice and snow--you heard "almost".

Ann, I have heard of the wonderful warrantee on the Kia. They have to be pretty good cars to have that kind of guarantee. I am still fighting my Florida-envy, you know.

I made a beef stew for my company and had to go to Wal-Mart last night for some stuff. I am so tired of being there when the town is in storm mode. I couldn't find stew meat or certain soups. There was a frenzy going on. Just crazy! Do people really think they will be snowed in for the rest of their lives? Anyway, we have a new Wal-Mart that opened today. So, we will have two and they will both probably be full of mean and rude people before a forecast storm. Ah well, that is my gripe for the day.

Hope you all are warm and dry. My teacher son has been off all week with his two little boys. He told me yesterday he is "mind numbingly bored." Sort of remember those days with him and his brothers. Had to laugh.
Glenda