My how time flies

Sorry Guys that it has been so long since I last blogged. Where shall I start....

HEADING TO GEELONG

On September the 26th, we loaded up our 12 seater hire bus and began our journey to Geelong, after a long compulsary practice day of dancing. We had to be there by Sunday night as Tara and Daniel were to compete on Tuesday and needed a practice with their teacher on the Monday morning. We were travelling fine until we were hit by a dust storm around Grafton. It was then a very slow trip to Sydney as the winds were gusting. Needless to say, a big bus like we were driving was easily pushed across the road.

We got a bit lost in Sydney and ended up crossing the Sydney Harbour bridge. I woke up all the children to show them the Opera house but unfortunatly it wasn't lit up so they really didn't see anything and now I had to put up with them being awake!!!!

Between Sydney and Geelong the winds were gail forced (up to 80km an hour) So our trip was very slow. We arrived around 10pm and within 40 minutes I decided to go sightseeing in an ambulance. I had broken my leg! What a great way to start our holiday!

AUSTRALIAN DANCING CHAMPIONSHIPS

They always say "break a leg" for good luck and that is definately what I did for my two youngest competetors. Tara was first up and she danced beautifully but so did 57 other 9 year old dancers.

Since most of you don't know how competition of this level work what happens is the children dance a hard shoe dance, then everyone dances a soft shoe dance. There are 3 aduducators from around the world who judge all dancers scoring them from 100 point downwards. Then all the scores are added up and the bottom 1/2 are elliminated from the competition. Then those children left dance a hard shoe dance. It is their own choice but must be a traditional dance.

The tension builds as they announce the recalled numbers numerically. Tara held my had tightly as the numbers were called .... I marked them off on the program and when they called 40, we both screamed with delight. I have been attending the Nationals with the older children for the last 9 years and this was the very first time one of mine had been recalled for their solos.

We now had to change halls, but Daniel was dancing in this hall. Who do I watch???? If I wasn't on crutches it wouldn't be a problem because I could go quickly. So with 2 dance teachers they let me stay and watch Daniel and Txt me 5 dancers before Tara to give me time to get to the other hall. I made it as Tara walked out onto the stage. She was fantastic and bubbling with joy.

I then headed back to watch Daniel's second dance. Again I thought he was great, but really I'm a little bias!

Before they called Daniel's recalls. Tara's presentation was on. All 28 dancers were called onto the stage.

All the girls on stage. The girls from around Tara have gone to get their award and she is still up there. We are down to the top 20, Now the top 15 and then Tara's number 40 is called. Tara had come 14th in Australia. I am such a proud mummy!!!! Well Done Tara. All the hard work has paid off!!!!!

Now Daniel's recalls. Dan is as cool as a cucumber but I know he really wants a recall. And YES!!! He had made it. And he is the only QLDer.

Dan made a little mistake in his final dance but what does it matter he will be placed anyway!

Daniel came 6th! That's my Dan! I love him so much, he is such a gentle caring guy. The young boy who came 1st at the Qld state titles where Dan had come third, came up to him and instead of congratualting him, said "Don't forget that I'm the State Champion and my trophey is bigger than yours!!!!" Talk about sour grapes. Dan didn't respond at all. But later said to me I should have said Good for you, I got a place at the Australians. YOUR TOO NICE DAN! The other photo is of Daniel and his friend Anneleise who came 24th in the 11 year old girls with their two teacher Anita and Kate.

All of the others danced well but 2009 wasn't their solo year. In teams we did awesome. All of my children came home with medals. Tara, Daniel and Tara's friend Kirianna, danced in the 3 hand choreographies in Under 13's and came 6th. Tara still has 4 more years in this age group and Kirri has 3 Daniel only 1. So next year we are aiming high!

That's enough for tonight. Except to say - THANKS DEB AND TONI for a fantastic night in on Friday night. I love getting together with all my friends!!!!

Finally!!!!

Well that is - Finally I'm posting on my blog and Finally my storeroom is clean.

Today I didn't need to go to school as I had done the required day at the beginning of the year, but YES I did still go in. For months I have wanted to clean my storeroom and today I was determined to get it done!

I arrived at school at 7.45am, and started pulling everything out.

I can't believe all this was in our small storeroom. Thank Goodness, I had some good helpers. Thanks Peta, Leoni and Pam. While Peta and I sorted, Pam and Leoni labelled all my containers containing fine motor activities and resources.

Meanwhile, I had set Di and Bernadette the task of cleaning out the shed.

By 2pm, things were starting to look like an end was near. Thanks to Dave and his lack of willingness to do a trip to the dump. We had to end up putting all the trash back into the shed until tomorrow when Kim has promised that Dave will go to the tip for us. But I'm still waiting for the vege garden, the sandpit cover and the watertank!!!!!

But check out the storeroom. Not only did we fit in all the stuff previously in the storeroom, but we also managed to include all the finemotor stuff in there aswell. All containers labelled and in alphabetical order (well that's today - maybe not by tomorrow)

Job well done if you ask me!!! Thanks Girls!

Assertive Annette - That's my new name!!!!

Another pupil free day about how to engage our students - but what about us?? Today I sat through 2 workshops that were not engaging at all. While the information was interesting, I did not feel engaged at all and could understand why students would misbehave. I felt like it!!

I also went to one about effective communication in school situations. Here it was highlighted to me just how submissive I really am! Well that's the end of me being submissive (at least for today), I'm being assertive.

With this in mind, I ditched my next two workshops (of which I didn't choose) and decided to go to one that I really wanted to go to! Pivot animation. I was feeling rather pleased with myself as I walked into the workshop I wasn't enrolled in, that was until they gave out the certificates of attendance - of course I didn't have one there. Mine would have been where I was meant to be. Opps! Hey, I'm being assertive here, I reminded myself and asked Felicity (one of the facilitators) to go and see if she could get mine from the other room. She went, but the doors were closed so she will find it and bring it to me at a later date.

At least I did what I wanted and bucked the system. Pretty impressive for me I think!!! (I'm sure it was Katrina's influence)

Back to the grind stone tomorrow! Have a great first day of the term!

Deb Ball

Just like the majority of my Saturdays, today was a dancing day. this time of the year is very stressful for the dancers as we head into our 3 major competitions - Mid year Feis (gives you an idea of where you are ranked in the state), followed by the State Titles and then the Australian Titles. So poor Tara's legs were aching so much from dancing today that she was in tears. Our day started at 10am with Declan's class. Then Tara, Daniel and declan had a teams class, followed by Ardal and Emilee's Intermediate team class followed by Cherree and Emilee's Senior Teams class. After teams it was Tara, Daniel and Ardal's Solo class followed byEmilee and Cherree's Solo class, the time now being 4.30pm. But no there is still more - Tara and Daniel had another 1 and a 1/2 hours for a 3 hand choreography for the State and Nationals.

We then had an hour to spare before we were required back to prepare for a display for the Pipe bands Debuton (can't spell) Ball! The children looked fantastic as they danced an eight hand to the bagpipes (not so easy). During Emilee's performance as she did a huge front click, Emilee slips of her toes and lands on the floor, she gets up, smiles and bows. Well done, Emilee!

Daniel and Tara dance like troupers - even though Tara's legs were absolutely killing her.
Ardal dances half of his performance and while focusing on the fact that Emilee slipped over and he didn't want to - forgets his dance and bursts out laughing as he tries to pick up the dance.

I'm so proud of my children. They dance all day, and all night and still come out laughing!!!
Declan has just stirred in his sleep and asked his Dad to dance for him cause he's to tired to do anymore today!

Sorry to bore you with my dancing day, but it definately plays a major part of my life! Anything for my children.

Out of the mouths of babes!

I don't really have much to update today, so I'll give you a snippet of my conversation with Declan last night as we drove into Caboolture to collect Emilee and Ardal from the train.



As we drove along, Declan was telling me what all teh trafic signs meant. "Mum you can't go any faster than 100." "It says 80 now so you better slow down". "That street is Peel". I was very impressed with his knowledge of the signs.



As we got close to the road work near McDonalds, Declan piped up. "I know why your not allowed boomerangs near here. They might get lost near the trucks!" What do you mean Declan, I asked. Look that sign says- No Boomerangs!

Declan was pointing to














Great thinking Declan!!

Rainy Days

Rainy Days are definately sleeping in days and that is certainly what my children have done today. Tara is still fast asleep at 9.30am. Make the most of it, because when school returns we are back to rise and shine early.

The boys are lazing around playing on the old game cube, since Cherree has borrowed the Wii. And I'm playing on the computer - One of my favourite pastimes. I was actually considering getting them all up to clean the house, but have decided I like the piece and quiet.

So I wonder what I'll get done today! I let you all know tonight!

Have a lovely Rainy Day, and Thank God it didn't rain yesterday!

Under 16's Play Date

Thanks for the fun filled day at Deb's with fabulous friends. I really appreciate the fact that I am part of this truly amazing bunch of girls! And thanks once again Melissa for allowing me to have the thrill of driving a new car!

Feeding the cows, was very interesting. Declan was petrified at first, but soon relaxed as long as the cow didn't come to close. Emilee enjoyed playing with the younger children - she's not quite sure that she enjoyed Double Caitlyn's jumping on her back! Tara loved the jumping castle and playing with Caitlyn on her bike. Declan enjoyed some time with his friend from Kindy - Blayne.

That was the finish of my wonderful day! I went to pick up my external hard drive with all of my work from the last 3 years. First the guy brought out to me a device that looked nothing like the one I took in. "That's not mine" I replied, "unless you put the data onto a different drive". "What did yours look like?" My heart sank, OMG! I described it to him, and he told me oh that's right yours is still with the data recovery team in Brisbane. "Then why did you phone me and tell me it ws ready on Friday". After a lot of discussion, the boss was phoned and it was discovered that the casing had been changed on my drive, but this one was the right one. I paid for it $97.50. I then asked if I could check that the data on it was all there. They plugged it into their laptop and as I had presumed, the files had not been recovered. Only 5 files there instead of about 50. I asked to have my money refunded until they fixed what I had asked for. I explained to them that if they had of sent it away as asked last Monday, I would have it back by now and ready to work, but instead it looks like I will be waiting a while, and I'm not paying for anything if they don't retrieve the files!!!!! I'm so frustrated - MEN, who think they know more than women when it comes to technology!!!!!

On the whole, I really did enjoy my day. Ardy was cooking dinner for the family when I arrived home, and now they are all in the lounge room together watching T.V like little angels. I really love all of my children - even LIAM!!!