Talk about busy....!!

Time is just zooiming by at the moment. We went up to Gin Gin on the weekend to drop the quad bikes off for Easter. We enjoyed a lovely weekend catch up with Rick and Marina and the boys, and then headed back home on Sunday. Went out for dinner with friends on Sunday night when we got back, so that was a long day! I am busy today finishing off packing up the caravan for our Easter trip away, we are planning on leaving early tomorrow morning, as it's about a 5 hour drive with the caravan on. Just finishing off some washing now, and then will start packing clothes and finishing off the last few bits and pieces that need doing before we go, have to give the chooks lots of food and water and re-do the straw in their pen as it's been quite wet here again and they have squashed what was there in to the ground. Also need to feed the worms! There's been lots of other things happening, I just haven't had the time to post them on here...I have saved them in to my drafts though, so I will eventually catch up on them.

Our day at the zoo......

We ended up having nice enough weather to go to the zoo today.  It was looking very "iffy" this morning, but Kasey was really looking forward to going, so we risked it and it ended up being a good day. 

This peacock put on a lovely display for us when we got there...he waited until I took the photo, and then retracted his feathers....very thoughtful...thankyou Mr Peacock!

Toni...you are always so bright and bubbly, and we love that about you....

 I patted the Alpacas...this one spat on my hand....eeewwww...it stank...their spit smells like it comes from the other end, not out of their mouth....

Kasey was mesmerised by the baby chickens 

Toni "drinking" from the fountain...a trick of the eye... 

Patting the wallabies

And feeding the deer's

 Awww...cuddling a koala...

 This cow was hilarious, it was chasing everyone around wanting their food, and ended up stealing Kasey's bag of food...bag and all, and promptly swallowed it before anyone knew anything about it....lucky it's a paper bag....!!!

Kasey and Hannah feeding and patting the kangaroos

We invited one of Kasey's oldest friend's along as well, they have been friends since toddlers at daycare. We came back here for a swim after the zoo as it was quite hot, and Hannah didn't end up going home until about 8.30 tonight, so they should both sleep well tonight, come to think of...so should I !!!

A busy, but productive week....

Saturday night already??  This week has flown by again...Wed and Thurs I was just running around really, tidying up a few bits and pieces.  Thursday morning/afternoon I cleaned the house and then went to the shops and picked up another christmas present for Kasey...KMart had the lava lamps on special for $10, so I picked up a pink glitter one for her room as a little extra gift for her to open on Christmas day.  Friday was wedding prep for a wedding today, gorgeous cream roses, white lisianthus and white freesias.  They ended up looking divine, and the bride was extremely happy with them:

Tammy came over tonight for a visit, so we had a chat and watched a movie.  I finished a bottle of wine...ooops...a nice girly night in.  Kasey had her first ever ballet performance today, they were soooo cute in these gorgeous little baby doll outfits, I have ordered some photos which will come in a couple of weeks, so will post some then.  As they were the only group in their age group, they got first place, so that was great for all of them. Damian leaves Moranbah tomorrow and heads home, hooray, I really miss him...so he should be home on Monday some time.  Off to the craft show tomorrow, Toni is babysitting Kasey in the morning until she goes to work, and Michael is coming over in the afternoon to babysit his little sister...aww...how nice.... I wonder how many goodies I will come home with from the craft show.....hmmm...have to control myself I think.  I am also meeting a couple of brides throughout the day, 1 wants to give me 2 of her grandmothers rings to incorporate into her bouquets in a fortnights time, 1 is from up north and wants to touch base with me while down in Brisbane, and another wants to bring her bouquet to me so I can preserve it....so a busy day coming up, however, it will be really nice to be "free" for the day with no kids or house to worry about, just some lovely time at the show.  Mum is also coming over tomorrow night to spend the night and have some Mother/Daughter time...anyway, it's late, so I'm off to bed :)  Night night....

Coffee, permaculture and an eventual animal commitment....

Caught up with Tammy for coffee yesterday. We were there for 3 hours! It was a long chat. Tammy has done welfare and counselling, so she had quite an in depth talk with Toni while we were there about Sat night, to try and clear things in her head for her. We finally heard from the girls family today, who have said that she is being discharged from hospital today, and that they don't hold anyone responsible, and that it was just a terrible accident. All well and good, but I am afraid that I do hold this girl responsible, it was her decision to totally wipe herself out with alcohol and jump on my daughters bonnet and seriously injure herself, and cause Toni such distress in the process, I am really happy that she is ok, and no serious damage has been done, but seeing how upset Toni has been over the last few days has been really hard to deal with, I just hope that everyone that was at this party has learnt something, I would hate to see no lessons learnt out of all of this, at least this girl's parents are now aware that there teenage daughter is wiping herself out with alcohol and can maybe monitor this a bit, I am not naive enough to think that Toni does not ever have a drink, but I know that having her licence and her driving to these things means that she won't be drinking, I know that she would never drink drive, she does take after me in this respect, I have never ever driven after drinking, and I know she feels exactly the same as me about this, thank goodness.....anyway....hopefully everyone can move on now....On a happier note, I recently reserved a permaculture book from the library, and picked it up today, so this will be my before bed reading for the next few weeks.

I am really interested in learning about the permaculture way of doing things. There is a course I could go and do , but it is nearly $1200, and I may still go and do it yet, but if I can learn everything out of a book, I would like to, even though I do love doing the practical side of learning, and find that I usually learn better that way these days...my brain definitely does not take to learning theory as well as it used to in my teens and twenties and even early thirties. I am also waiting on a permaculture design book to come in to the library that I have reserved, and will read that as well, much cheaper than spending $200 to buy it online.  I would really love to totally immerse myself in this way of doing things, and get more animals and spend most of my time outdoors.....but I haven't been game to commit to more animals, having horses was a really big commitment, and I think it has taken me a couple of years of not having them to get over the amount of time and effort that took, not to mention money! Damian called them the 4 legged money pits, the whole time I had them, which was true to a degree, and I found that I no longer had the really relaxed disposition around them that I had when I was much younger, and you really need that to be able to deal with the skittishness that they have. I also found that I no longer really enjoyed riding them due to the same reasons. I would really love alpacas, a donkey and miniature goats, even a miniature horse would be lovely, gorgeous animals, a bit quieter, and lovely manure for the gardens, and lawnmowers in the process....Damian would like sheep or a small cow as he would like to have them for the meat side of things, but if I had a cow I would want a milking one, and I definitely don't want to commit to milking a cow twice a day right now....maybe down the track I may get my head around that!