Christmas Eve

After our exhausing shopping trip that took about an hour longer than it should have, we got home to put the roast pork in the oven.

We finished wrapping presents, chopped the vegies, steamed the cauliflower... and then had a little rest.

Ben got home from work around 5ish, in time to crack open a Fat Yack (a beer brewed at Matilda Bay) and sit down at the table to wait for dinner to be served!

Monique got stuck straight into the crackle, I don't blame her, it's soooo yummy!

Mum and I shared a bottle of Gralyn Late Harvest Cabernet, a favourite of ours from Gralyn Estate in Margaret River. It can only be purchased from the cellar door but our new next door neighbours gave me a bottle... they must like me :P

As soon as we sat down to eat I realised I had forgotten too cook the carrots! Oh dear... They weren't really missed, there was enough food to go around. After we'd all had enough roast pork, roast potato, roast pumpkin, cauliflower cheese and gravy, I started on dessert. Puff Pastry Pinwheels with Strawberries and Cream and they were so yummy!!!

Monique fell asleep quite quickly that night. We didn't even have time to leave any biscuits or milk/beer out for Santa!!! After she'd been in bed for about 1/2 an hour we put out all the Santa presents as well as her bike.

I think I went to bed before the Carols by Candelight on TV were finished. I have no idea what time they finished but I crashed around 11.00-11.30pm.

Next blog: Christmas Day.... Coming soon :)

Cass

The lead up to Christmas

I've been MIA for a few days. I have thought about this site though because whenever anything interesting happened I immediately thought "I could blog that"!!!!

There may be quite a few blogs over the next few days while I remember everything that happened over the Christmas period.

Mum and Dad arrived last Monday, in time for them to come with me to pick up Monique from daycare. I was signing her out while mum and dad went in to get her. I heard mum say "Monique" and then I heard a very excited "Grandma!" and then "Grandad!". She was so pleased to see them.

We all went to Cockburn Gateway on Tuesday. Mum caught up with an old friend (no emphasis on the OLD, Aunty Pauline, lol. Just that we've known you for years and years and years!!!!) for lunch, while Dad and I visited my cousin. Looking at the attached photo it looked like a liquid lunch :P

Then we met up with Mum and Aunty Pauline at the shops where I was given some presents to put under our tree. (Thank you for my magazine by the way)

I think Wednesday we just had a day at home. My days are all scattered at the moment and I can't remember what happened when!

Ben got home Wednesday afternoon and helped Dad wash his car. Afterwards he came inside and was about to jump in the shower when he said "I'll go shopping tomorrow night to get a present for you and Monique". It was almost 7.30pm and I had to tell him that the shops weren't open Thursday night, being Christmas Eve, and that he'd have to get going right now!!!! So him and Dad took off down the shops. It was probably the quickest shopping trip for Christmas presents ever! After they got home Ben kept saying that he didn't know what us women complained about... But he only had to shop for 2, well make that 4 as he ended up spoiling mum and dad too.

On Thursday we went for a "quick" trip to Rockingham City to get some last minute things for our Christmas Eve dinner and a couple of Secret Santa presents. The quick trip lasted about 2 or more hours. It was so busy.

I had a little chuckle to myself at the amount of dads that were shopping with their kids. Being a SAHM it's a very rare sight to see!!

Well that's the end of this post, that's enough for now I think. When I get a chance to sit on the computer for a while and type I'll have my next blog about our Christmas Eve to do.

BTW, here a photo of my $282 haircut :P

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Santa got them everything they needed.


Cass

Afternoon at the park

It's a lovely day today so I decide to take Miss M for a walk to the park. There's one literally just 2 minutes walk from our house. I'm a bit disappointed it's only 2 minutes away because it means I don't get much of a walk. There were a couple of mums there with their kids (roughly 2yrs old). They leave to go and see the ducks. Miss M overheard this and of course wanted to see the ducks too. I told her we'd go to the big park instead. The big park is only an extra 5 or so minutes walk from the little park.

We get to the big park and there's no-one there so Miss M has full reign of the whole thing. Then a young boy turns up (I'm guessing aged 7, 8 at the max) by himself. He's carrying a broken plastic ruler and starts trying to engrave something on one of the bars, and then again on the slide.... OMG!!!! He's 7 or 8 and already trying to graffiti stuff!!! Why is a 7 or 8 year old coming to the park alone? Surely in this day and age you would want to know where your young child is and what he's doing. Don't people care that there are people out there that are kidnapping kids, or worse?

Maybe I'm just a little overprotective, afterall M is still only 3 and does need to be watched constantly so she doesn't run off.

She did have fun at the park. Another girl came to the park with her dad a little bit later. He was doing laps around the oval area while she played on the swings, etc. M loved having someone else to play with, even if this girl was a few years older than her. Each time the dad came round for his next lap they'd both line up on the limestone wall and give him a high-5 as he ran past. I got to chat to the dad after he'd finished running. Turns out that his daughter (and son) go to the same school that M will be going to. He said it was a really good school. Although M starts kindy next year she won't be going to that school because they're too over-populated! The entire kindy grade will be going to a new school that's being built. When she is in pre-primary she will be at the same school. I wonder if they'll remember each other by then!!

Cass

Happy Birthday to my sisters

Today my twin sisters turned 31

We are all getting old

Happy Birthday Tracey & Natalie

I'm guessing this was 1979 because they look so big here. When they were born Nat (left) weighed 1380g and Tracey was 990g. They were born 8 weeks early and mum had no idea that she was having twins. I can't imagine the shock of waking up after anaesthetic to be told you had not one baby, but two! Only one heartbeat was heard on the ultrasound. Technology has come a long way since then!

And this was all of us, parents, partners and children included, in August. Tracey's in the purple shirt and Nat's in the black skirt. It's so hard getting a photo of all the kids looking at the camera. I love this photo because they're all playing up and not looking.

Earliness must run in the family. I was born 5 weeks early too and I think I was around 5lb 2oz. Monique was born @ 36 weeks (3lb, 14oz), Nat's daughter was born @ 28 weeks (1lb 7oz), Tracey's sons were born @ 35 weeks (4lb 11oz) and very close to full term (6lb). We have small babies in our family too. It's hard to believe that mum and dad's biggest grandchild was only 6 pound.


Not long until Christmas now. I think I'm all organised. I got all the kid's pressies in the July toy sale when they had the no deposit layby and you didn't have to pick it up until Christmas Eve. I picked it up in October sometime and have just posted the niece & nephews presents off to Brisbane for the other side of the family.

We do need to get Secret Santa presents though... It's going to be hard because the family that we're spending Christmas night with we don't usually see very often.

Mum and dad will be here Christmas Eve so we're having a roast pork. I bought some Christmas plates, a serving tray, a table cloth and some crackers last week. I hope that's all I need. I've never hosted a Christmas dinner before! I think we've decided that Christmas morning our next door neighbours will come over for a Champagne Breakfast. That should be nice, maybe just some croissants as we're having a big lunch and dinner!

Well, another late night.... I really need to start going to bed early but it's been the only time I get a chance on the computer lately when everyone's asleep.

Cass

Do you like my new banner?

I finally got around to doing myself a new banner. It didn't take me long to do once I started, it was just the getting started that was the hard part! I can't seem to get rid of the double line blue border though and it's not fitting around the picture properly otherwise I'd just leave where it is. Can you tell what font I've used? 10 points for a correct guess ;-)  hahahaha

We had a very lazy day today. I woke up with a headache, and no it wasn't a hangover, I didn't touch a drop last night. I have quite a sore neck too so maybe my neck's out. Hmmmm, I'm thinking I should go and get my full body massage on Monday after my haircut if there's still time before having to pick M up from daycare. I'm getting quite excited about it. I'm hoping they'll do a good job. It's hard to find someone that really knows how to handle cutting curly hair.

39 degrees tomorrow!!! OMG, we don't have air con either. It was 37 today but we kept the house shut up for most of the day and it didn't get too hot inside. We also get a nice breeze through the alfresco area due to being on a hill. I hope that lasts all throughout summer.


I've found 2 fruits that I'm really liking at the moment. Figs and Lychees.

I've always loved figs and we even had a fig tree at a rental house once, but for some reason I'm really big on lychees now too. Last Christmas I found some Lychee Vodka Cruisers in Denmark while we were staying at Peaceful Bay.

I haven't been able to find  any up around Perth unfortunately, or maybe that's a good thing, it means I won't drink so much! Although Guava comes a very close second.

Almost midnight now. Maybe we should've gone to bed earlier so we could get up early tomorrow and go to the beach before it gets too hot. See what happens, we can always catch up on sleep after we've been to the beach. Surely it should tire out M so she sleeps too.

Night night
xx

A bit of eye-candy for the festive season

Here's a few of my favourite Bon Jovi Christmas songs on YouTube:

I wish every day could be like Christmas

Run Rudolf Run (Live - with Santa Clause Is Coming To Town)

Blue Christmas (Elvis cover)

Please Come Home For Christmas (with Cindy Crawford in the video clip, lucky girl)

These Open Arms - from "A Nightmare Before Christmas" movie

R2D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas
This is Jon's first ever recording apparently. On a Star Wars Christmas record!! lol, too funny.

All I Want For Christmas - not Bon Jovi singing but lots of photos to drool over


Can you tell I've had a YouTube day today? lol


Cass

Wow, a whole week without blogging!

We put up the Christmas tree on the 1st. B got a great photo of M - I just wish we'd got a nice one like this before doing the Christmas cards. Or maybe I should've waited instead of being impatient and wanting to send the cards out early.

I have booked myself in to get my hair done on Monday while M is at daycare. I'm kind of excited, although still shocked at the $282.10 price tag!!!

My mum and grandma both sent me some money for my birthday so I have decided that I will finally create one of those Momento Photo Books of our wedding (which was over 6.5 years ago). We don't have a wedding album as such, all the photos were given to us just in a black folder which has 6 slots per page for photos. I did start scrapbooking the photos years ago but never got around to finishing it. It was my first attempt at scrapbooking so it's not overly the best. I've almost finished the Photo Book, just need to get B's opinion on some of the pages.

My sister (N) came for a visit again last weekend. She gave me the Bon Jovi Live at Madison Square DVD for my birthday. My niece loved dancing to a bit of Jovi, much to N's disgust!! If I knew how to upload a video to here I would, it was quite funny, she was doing the \m/ (metal) sign while dancing!

 

We took both the kids to the beach on Saturday. We found a great beach for the kids, it was shallow (knee depth) for ages and ages. I even stood in the water with my camera and took some photos looking back towards the sand.

Now here's a photo of my mum in the Jovi shirt that www.BonJovi.com sent me when I originally ordered my shirt

And here's me wearing the shirt they were supposed to send the first time

The above photo is me with M while I was enjoying my Bliss cocktail at Hog's Breath. Those cocktails are so yummy. Lychee Liqueur, Melon Liqueur, Orange Juice and Cranberry Juice. I think I might have to invest in some of those liqueurs to make some myself.... But then again, I really don't want to put back on the 8kg that I've lost in the last 3 months.

Banoffee Pie!!! If you haven't tried it already, do! YUMMY! Did I say I'd lost 8kg? Well after this I think I may have put back on a couple, oops...

Cass

xx

Spoilt Rotten

After saying I hoped Ben got me something decent this year after last year's Christmas present attempt he actually came through with the goods!!

He tried to wake M this morning around 6.30am so she could give me my presents. Apparently she takes after me in the waking up grumpy department!!

I received a $280 gift voucher to a hairdressers (and was quite shocked that that's how much a cut and colour costs these days!),


a $60 voucher for a full body massage

and a connector for an iPod so you can play it through your car stereo....

One minor detail, I didn't own an iPod, I have an MP3 player!! I say didn't because I do now, we went shopping this afternoon to buy me one. Miss M picked the colour.

I've done better this year than all the past birthdays and Christmases put together! He did really well.

We're off to Hogs Breath in a little under an hour. I'm thinking a cocktail might be on the menu tonight. The diet and calorie counting can start again tomorrow. I put on a kilo in the last 2 weeks, so now I've only lost 7kg total.

Now to go and find out how to put music onto my new iPod :)


Cass

Almost another year older

Tomorrow will mark my 21st birthday - I WISH!!!!! Gosh, my 21st birthday, that was a few years ago now. My parents flew me to Mount Isa for my birthday so I could spend it with them and my sisters. I got asked for ID when we went out to tea, wouldn't I love to be asked for it now. Two years after that I was moving to Mount Isa myself where I met Ben. We have now been together for 11.5 years. I think that adds up right, so that would make me 34 tomorrow :(

Ben went shopping today for my presents. I can't wait to see what he got me! Anything has got to be better than the hand cream and candles that he bought me for Christmas last year. I know he ran out of money while shopping though so that could be a good thing :)

Tomorrow I will finally be able to wear my Bon Jovi shirt that arrived in the post last Friday, I will be able to drool at the photos in my new Bon Jovi book (thanks Mum), and if my sister visits tomorrow night I'll also be able to watch Bon Jovi perform on the big screen TV. And Ben's taking me to Hogs Breath for tea. It's gonna be an awesome day tomorrow :)

Time to organise dinner now...

Cass

Photos

I just had to post some of the photos I took of Grandma's flowers whilst in Bridgetown.

I survived...

...3 days away from the computer! And it was wonderful.

The three of us went down to Bridgetown on Friday to see my grandma as we're spending Christmas at home this year instead of Bridgetown.  The scenery looks so different now since the bushfire (16th January 2008 - it started on what would have been Grandad's 83rd birthday). There's no more pine trees surrounding the road and it looks so bare. 33 years of going along that same road with the same scenery... and now it doesn't look like we're traveling to Bridgetown.

The Bridgetown Show was also on and mum and dad were playing music there. Monique had a great time dancing! At the end of every song she would run up to them and give them both a kiss and hug, it was so cute.

M wanted to ride on the roundabout but I hate rides and don't think I would've gone on that one with her and I still think she's too little to go on her own. We did go on a camel ride together though, that was fun, she loved it. She also went on the bouncy castle.

I let M pick out her own showbag. The Hello Kitty one grabbed her attention. I wish the showbag stands were closer together. When I went for a walk with grandma we came across another stand that had a couple of other ones (pirate or doll) that I think M would've chosen over the HK one.

I feel a little guilty that I didn't go and "visit" grandad... It's been just over a year now. I really don't want to go the cemetery alone but I also don't want anyone with me when I go because I don't know how I'll react.  I did say a little hello and goodbye when we passed the road to the cemetery though.

We came home with heaps of goodies - Homemade Apricot Jam, Homemade Grapefruit Marmalade, Homemade Tomato Sauce, Homemade Mango Chutney, Lemons, Avocados, Pumpkin, Fresh Farm Eggs....

Grandma also gave me a pair of earrings. Grandad had given them to her a few years ago but she never wore them because they hurt her ears. They are gorgeous and if I take a photo of them I'll put it on here.

We stopped at my sister's (T) house on the way there and back. Gave nephew B his birthday present which he loved - a Thomas carriage and Thomas undies, he couldn't wait to wear the undies!! T also gave me my birthday present - A bottle of wine, a Simply Too Good To Be True recipe book, some scratchies and some shower gel.

I opened the letterbox when we got home and my BJ shirt had arrived!! Yay, they finally sent the right shirt. I'm thinking that I'll give it to B to wrap up so M can give it to me on Friday for my birthday.

Well that's about it... I've still got some emails to check and heaps of facebook notifications and more photos to upload to facebook. Busy afternoon, lucky M is at daycare today.

Cass

You've gotta love dedication...

This morning I was awake at 4.10am. Why? I hear you ask. Well, I had heard that Bon Jovi were going to be on the American Today show at that time on Aussie TV. I hadn't decided to get up early but was woken by M so I took advantage of the situation! I tried every channel but couldn't see them on and went back to bed because I was so tired. Fast forward an hour and M again woke me asking to watch some TV. I turned the TV on and guess who was on there?  They were playing live at Rockefeller Square. I'm not sure how long they were playing or if they were interviewed but I got to see 3 songs at least. Two of them were my favourites.

Here's a YouTube video of one of them:
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE VIDEO

And a couple of photos to drool at:

Aren't they gorgeous?

Hopefully a BJ friend from over east recorded the whole show and can send me a copy on DVD. Sometimes I wish I lived in America so I could see them often. Once in my lifetime is just not enough.

I've been thinking lately that even though Jon is my favourite, Tico really should be. Afterall the songs I really like are the ones that have a good drum beat.

I have a busy day today so I really shouldn't have been up so early, but as the title says.... You've gotta love dedication!

Cass

Is it time for bed yet?

It's been a long day and it's only 3.50pm. I am so tired. I didn't get to bed until around 2am this morning. It was a stupid idea not to go to bed before B & N got home from the concert and once they were home we had to look at photos and upload them to facebook!!!

Amon Amarth

N took lots of photos but most of them you can't see their faces as they're headbanging and their hair is covering their face!!

One of the members of Mhorgl with Nat - Local Perth Band

I took M to kindy gym this morning - first time since she had her tonsils and adenoids out. She had fun. She was excited when we pulled up which never happens. I think she missed seeing the other kids.

I really need to put the christmas shirt and hat on her to take photos because I need to print out our christmas cards tomorrow to take down south with me on Friday.

It's the day for working out our meal plan too so we can do our food shop tomorrow. I'm actually really liking the idea of meal planning. It's good to know what we're having for tea each night rather than it get to 4pm and I'm still wondering what to cook. Some of the meals I can start early in the morning as well.

This is one of the recipes I've found that I really like. Unfortunately B doesn't like the idea of mixing fruit with meat so I won't get to have this one very often.

Grilled Chicken with Chilli Mango Salsa

B really likes this one. Spicy Coconut Beef. We've had it every week since I found the recipe. I need to add a bit of sour cream into it at the end as it's a little too spicy for my liking.

Cass

I love it when they're laughing...

...but hate it when they're fighting.


Cousins that is! I'm looking after my niece tonight while my husband (B) and my sister (N) go and watch Amon Amarth. They are a Viking Heavy Metal Band who are playing in Perth tonight. B was asked a couple of nights ago if he'd like to go with N. He had no idea who they were but I hope he enjoys himself.

We had to go to the city today so N could find an Amon Amarth t-shirt to wear to the concert. She already has one but left her bag of clothes at her house before driving up to see us yesterday, DOH! So off to Perth we went at around 9.30am this morning. It was a very hot day today but we traipsed all over town (all sunscreened up) looking for the shirt. The last shop on our list (Joynt Venture) had the last shirt in Perth, I'm sure of it! We found 78 Records who didn't have any of their shirts but out of curiousity I asked if they had the new Bon Jovi DVD that was released today. I wasn't getting my hopes up because of all the hassles I had trying to buy the new album, but according to their computer they had some in stock. The guy went to look, came back, checked the computer, went to look, came back again, checked the computer, went to look, and came back with the DVD. It's currently sitting in our spare room with all my sisters gear calling my name! If I watch it now will she ever know?? hahahaha - No I couldn't do that, I can wait a few more days. A few tantrums, a trip to Harbourtown and a Gloria Jean's Cookies n Cream Chiller (at 500 calories OMG!!!) later we decided to drive back home. Both girls decided to sleep on the way home. Aaah, peace at last.


I told N that they'd probably be the only 2 at the concert so she'd be able to meet and greet the band... I think she liked that idea but wasn't sure that would be the case. How many viking metal fans are there in Perth?


We took B & N to the train station around 2 hours ago. We figured it would be easier for them to do that so they could have a few drinks at the concert. Although I'm not getting 2 kids and myself loaded into the car around midnight to go and get them from the station - so a taxi will have to do!

M is recovering well from her tonsillectomy. Back to kindy gym tomorrow. I'm glad to be getting out of the house, 2 weeks stuck at home while she recovered was not all that fun. Food is going down a lot easier - no massive tonsils getting in the way now!  Hopefully she'll start trying different foods soon.



Well that's my day (I think), not too exciting but long and tiring. I hope I didn't bore you too much.


Cass

Welcome to my new blog

I'm starting to get the hang of this blogging business so I decided I would set up another one. My other blog IS HERE, it is mainly set up to show my designs so this new blog is on a more personal note.


I will introduce myself a little before I start rambling. My name is Cass, I am a mother of 1 beautiful 3 year old daughter, and wife to a wonderful, caring man. I have been married almost 7 years and we have recently purchased our first home.


How did I come up with the name I hear you ask? Well it was very hard as I am no good coming up with names or titles. It's hard enough to think up a character name when playing a computer game, let alone a name for a blog that you'll be using for a very long time. As most of my friends know (well make that 99.99999% of them) I am a MASSIVE Bon Jovi fan. The first URL that came to mind was taken, so was the second and third, then all I could think of was jovi4ever. Next came time to think of a title... I think it's quite self explanatory actually! Especially considering in the last 2 days I have purchased the following:

Well I purchased the book so mum could buy it off me to give me for my birthday. And my sister bought the DVD today to give me for my birthday. So I still have 10 days before I can actually own them. I restrained myself from buying the Jon Bon Jovi calendar that I saw at our local shopping center yesterday though.

I'm also waiting eagerly for the postie to bring me this:

since the first one they sent out to me was the wrong size!!

As I said, I'm not obsessed.... much!!

By the time I'm through you will all either be sick of Bon Jovi or trying to beat me to be their #1 Fan.

Cass

PS: there was almost a divorce last week when I suggested to hubby that when I start up a business I would be calling it Jovial Designs.....