Got me a gargoyle.......

and I loves him, yes I does!

Got this done after work tonight by Duane at Outta Limits Tattoo Dubbo - he did an awesome job. To be honest, the photo does not really do it justice. Terry came with me which was great too - it took about an hour to do. Can't say it was particularly painful, didn't grimace or go 'ouch' once. I could feel it more over the bony bits but not really bad. The only thing that did surprise me though was I got really woozy about ten minutes in - it wasn't because of the pain, apparently it was the endorphins kicking in and it is quite common. Cannot say breaking out in a sweat, getting light headed and feeling a little nauseus was pleasant, but it soon passed. We stopped for about five minutes, Duane went and had a smoke, I drank some water and from then on everything was smooth sailing. It was exactly what I wanted and I am so happy with it! I will be going back next year to get another tattoo on the other shoulder - it will be a dragon head with three flowers (not sure on the type yet) and either the three boys names or their initials - will see what we come up with!

Tink, tink, tink, tink............

is the sound coming from the shed this week. This is the beginnings of T's new helm - still a long way to go. He saw a picture on the internet and said he wanted 'that helm' and so he has begun to make it...........pretty darn clever if you ask me! (And yes, he did make his own chain mail on the back - more patience than me I can tell you!!!)

Things are looking up.......

Had the meeting with the school and the new school last week - went well. They are looking at a few options and we go to the senior campus next Friday to discuss further, this time with Conrad present. Starting to feel a little more hopeful......

I need to rant........

but I won't do too much here, I have some friends that are teachers and I know not all are tarred with the same brush. But OMG do some of them need a good dose of responsibility and common sense!!! I fear that days like today are only going to become more frequent as the year comes to an end and one of my sons goes to a new school next year (don't even get me started on my dealings with the new school to date). It has become a case of 'not my problem' with the school - the current school don't want to do anything because he is 'moving on' due to the stupid setup in this town (Year 7 - 9 at junior campus and year 10 - 12 at senior campus, which is a whole other rant) and the new school don't want to know because he is not a current student. Man!!!! The stupidity of it all is if both schools did just a few minor things differently EVERYONE would have a much easier time of it. My son, the other students, teachers etc. Aargh!!! I am dreading next year - I hope my bad feelings are misguided but some how I doubt it......... The school dropped my son off at his dad's work (get this) thirty minutes before school finished, didn't tell his brother so no message got to his nan who was picking him up. I hadn't been told anything so my poor mum rings me in a panic 'cause she and his brother can't find him, can't get onto T and the youngest one is ready to be picked up from school on the other side of town! Long story short, the boy was found, mum met me at the school where I was waiting with the youngest one and I got absolutely drenched including shoes - back at work now still fuming. The stupid thing is my son is supposed to have a space he can go to when things get overwhelming for him - why wasn't he taken there for THIRTY MINUTES! They sent my son home because the student causing the problems parents wouldn't come and pick him up! Deal with it!!! Why should my son get sent home?
Oh, and to add to the list, I am supposed to have a meeting tomorrow with the new school and a teacher from the current school, which I was told about at lunch time today, but we don't have a time yet, I'll let you know this afternoon! No, they still haven't contacted me and school finished an hour ago. I am so frustrated with the bl*&^y school system it is not funny! They expect me to just up and leave work whenever they ring, well hey buddy, I cannot do that! In an emergency, yeah fine, but not for something we have been talking about for THREE TERMS NOW and you could have organised with much more warning!

And on that note I think I will stop 'cause I feel my blood boiling again..........if only I could get on WoW now........

Border War XI looks awesome......

just checked out their web page at http://www.freewebs.com/scabordescros, can't wait to go! Sooooo many things to organise before then! Boffer Boats will be something the boys want to do so looks like I will have to get wet too ;-) Hmmm - get one (or two)built and test it on our dam! LOl

Lots of arrows to fix before then, and blunts, and armour, and garb and........

I need to get motivated and organised! T and P have been armouring in the shed so I guess I should leave WoW alone and do something constructive! LOL (Not that I got to play much on the weekend, too much to do!)

BTW, Death Knights are awesome on Wrath of the Lich King - good fun! The boys enjoyed it too ;-)

WoW Wrath of the Lich King released

and I have my copy ;-) Will be loading it tonight when I get home from work - the kidlets can't wait either! Woot!

Ah, the temptation........

to enrol in more study! But I will be good, and wait.......

I have been checking out uni subjects - I certainly don't have the time to enrol in a degree but there is a thing called non-award subjects. They can be used towards a degree later on but you can study one subject at a time. There are things like:
* Diploma in Languages
* Greek Heroes and Heroines: From Achilles to Zorba
* Egyptian Archeology: An Introduction
* Myth in the Ancient World
* Ancient Egyptian Religion
* Antiquity's Heirs: Barbarian Europe, Byzantium and Isalm
* Ancient Latin

Then there are some subjects at UNE (waiting to hear if they do non-award subject too like Macquarie University - couldn't help myself):
* Medieval History
* The Age of the Vikings
* An Age of Uncertainty: Later Plantagenet England

And I had to stop searching as I was starting to drool and come up with wild schemes on how I could come up with $1200 per subject!

I am thinking maybe for 2010 I might be able to start with a subject and work my way through my list! LOL It would have been so much easier to do my HSC and go onto Uni from there but I had no idea at the time what I wanted to do - I was bored at school and needed to find my way. Do I regret it? No. Would it have been easier? Yes. I cannot regret the experiences that have made me who I am today - sure things annoy me at times but for the most part, I am completely content. I know who I am, what I want and I am enjoying my life and my family. I would not trade my husband or my children for anything in this world - I like my bed of roses, thorns and all!!

Booked for Border War at Bordescros (Albury) which is on 27 February to 1 March 2009. It will be our first time at this particular event - really looking forward to it! Lots to organise before then! I have so much to do the time is just getting away!

Apparently Nickelback have a new album being released here this Saturday - will have to get that one! WoW - Wrath of the Lich King comes out here tomorrow too. I have a pre-ordered copy to pick up tomorrow - woot!

We can all relate to this one........

more animals

Another Tuesday update

Hmmm, Tuesday seems to be the day for updates! On a quick coffee break so thought I would post something here.

Spent all weekend cleaning the boys rooms and having a throw out - words cannot describe the state they were in! Got the new bunk beds in for Gryffen and Wolfstanus that T made - they are awesome. We then decided to paint the room while we were at it! Grey walls and purple (velvet maroon to be precise) feature wall. *IF* they look after their room, I will paint a mural on the feature wall and their built in wardrobe. We then did Conrad's room too - grey walls with a black feature wall. Same deal for him - he should have a new bed by the weekend, T thinks he will have it finished by then. We also painted the hall way. Need to do the main bathroom, loo, laundry and then the dreaded dining room/kitchen. I say dreaded because it has a cathedral ceiling and will be a bugger to paint! It is going grey with the purple feature wall to match the lounge room (there is an arch between the two). I still think the feature wall in our bedroom has the best name for the colour 'Eye of Newt' which is red ;-) It still makes me giggle!

Had to take Rex the Cat to the vet this morning for a check up. We found two lumps towards the back of his belly. We thought they were just fat glands (he loves his food including cheescake and lassagne - we learnt not to leave those on the bench!) but wanted to check and make sure. Turns out they are fat glands and he is a little overweight. Overweight cats tends to mean type 2 diabetes so we want to avoid that. We have to cut his food back (oh the indignity and the meows that will come!!!) and he needs more exercise (he is a house cat - our neighbours like to shoot cats and dogs that go onto their property and as Rex is a very curious and mischievous cat we do not want to take the risk). So, Wolfstanus needs to play lots more games with him and take him for walks on his harness. At the moment, he walks five metres and flops to the ground and says 'that's enough' (Rex that is LOL). Our other two cats have never had a 'fat' problem as they are outside all day (in at night) and supplement their diet with birds, lizards, bugs and mice (which the vet said is a *good* thing for the cats).

For this weekend

*Taking Scooby (one of our dogs) and Sylvester (one of the other cats) to the vet on Saturday for their annual vaccination and check up.
* More painting
* More cleaning/washing
* Re-draw T's device for resubmission (run by Rowany Herald first to make sure I have it right)
* Start making K's and my 'Roman Garb'
* Get back into organising the Stock Clerk online store

Other news

I have posted my final short hand assignment to Sydney yesterday. Woo hoo! So glad that is out of the way - now I just need to practice it so I can use it! LOL

Back to work.........

Tuesday tidings......

On a short lunch break and did not have anything specific to do so thought I would put a quick update here. Work has been good for the most part - I have my 'special envelope' now for the bad days ;-) 'What on earth is that?' I hear you ask good reader......

You see, last month was 'Gratitude Month' so one of the managers here decided it would be nice to do something. An email was sent around and if people would like to participate they just needed to reply and further information was given out. A list was then made of all the people who wished to be involved and was circulated to all those people. We then had to write a note with something positive on it about that person (we could sign our name our do it anonymously - most chose anonimity - yours truly invluded). All the notes went into a box and at the end of the month the organisers put the notes into envelopes and gave them out. The idea is, when you are feeling a bit low or having a crappy day, you can pull out all these positive messages to help lift your spirits. I was surprised by a lot that I got as I do not know most of the people that were involved very well - it was really nice. (It helped yesterday too as it was 'one of those days'.) Most of us got a little teary too (but in a *good* way)! Really good idea!

Weekend was awesome - archery was fun, DVD and pizza night went well and the tourney on Sunday was great! All my family was there including T and the boys, K & P and T's parents even came to watch! Radburne had a nice picnic lunch together and we got to chat about plans for the future. It was really positive.

T has made new bunk beds for Wolfstanus and Gryffen - they are awesome! I will have to take a photo this afternoon so I can show you. The worst part was trying to get into their room - words cannot describe the state it was in! It is still a huge job but we have started the throw out and clean up. I shall just leave it at that ;-)

My lot got into armour Sunday afternoon and had a boffer tourney of sorts - very entertaining! Everyone is so pumped about getting involved now it is great. It has only taken six years LOL! I need to get back into sewing and the list is growing! Will be good though. I need to refocus and get back into planning!

Anyhow, lunch break over so back to work!