My Georgie Boy

has been missing now for about 8 weeks. I am so, so, so  devastated, I miss him so much. We are not sure if he has been kept in by a neighbour where he was last seen several times the first week he was missing or hes been done by a snake. We have searched all over the place,wading through thigh high grass etc being aware of snakes as we went, calling and calling including going to the house about 5 times and asking, but never allowed to go inside etc I think if he had been bitten by a snake he would have come home sick and we could have taken him to the vet for the snake anecdote.  Most stories I hear about cats is that they are too quick for the snake, jumping up or away, a lady here told me her cat plays with them all the time, so I am more than upset that he may be being kept by the lady who said she would bring him home if she saw him,

He was booked into the the vet for a "weight loss" the day after he went missing so had to cancel that..... He was starting to wander far too much so decided to get him fixed up after all.  But then he may be out there with a girlfriend somewhere and may come home some day. But in the meantime, I miss his cuddles and smooches and the kids miss him badly too. 
Anyway............ onto the next post..........

Week 11 Portrait in our FotoChallenge

Week 11  in our FotoChallenge Bevlea and Jan  and others on our Face-Book FotoChallenge page is Portrait.

Portrait of Toria and friends at school end of term 3.

 This was taken at Paul & Torias end of term day. They were in favourite sports team colors.
Obviously the teacher had said something, the other kids were looking there, not Toria as usual, looking at everything else.  Sorry about the alien bits on kids, also could'nt figure out how to put a better cover on the faces,  but I have not asked parents if it's ok to post their kids on my blog etc.

You can see the tiredness in all the kids at end of term3.  I would love to have been able to get out and about and take better portraits of people, but time this week as usual has escaped me.  BUT! I do like the composition of 4 looking one way and 1 the opposite.

Nest weeks theme is: Transport. Come join us.................Hoping to find some old transport round this district..............

Mid Years Resolution

Well, I have decided that I MUST blog more often. I am going to take a picture a day (fingers crossed) and try and post at least two or three of them once a week. You know the best laid plans etc. Hopefully one of my BGF Bevlea will give me a kick up the pants if I stray from it.

We are a little over the art stuff at this stage (for now for me, forever methinks for Bevlea and Lucy)  so it will be random stuff along with whatever art I do make. I want to get back into making replica teddies and some cloth dolls, not your run of the mill "country dolls" but more like Pam Grosse etc type dolls So lets see how it all goes. I will update on Facebook when I have done a post.

So here are the first photo's, taken on Thursday before we left for town and in town at lunchtime.
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First is Aroha having her hair brushed, she sure still hates it LOL. No matter how I do it she performs. (Part of the autism)

Second is Paul, Toria and Aroha on the slide after lunch in the park.

Then third photo, the kids were given a voucher each for Christmas from a friend who we have met since being up here. We finally got to town with them to have enough time to browse and spend.
Aroha chose an electronic guitar and microphone etc. She just loves it and is a real little pop star.
Paul bought a large remote control monster truck and Toria chose a LeapPad, a bit like an Ipad which we are having trouble getting it started and the apps loaded on this satellite internet, We will get there with a little help from some friends :-)  Thank you Kel. you're a treasure. 

So there we are, first weeks post. Hope you enjoy..................See you next week.

Road trip to Wagga Wagga January 2013

In the first week of January, Bevlea, Lucy and I went up to Wagga Wagga to visit our other BFF Barb T. Such a long time since we had got together to play.

Originally we had been planning a weekend away with all four of us together - but Barb's family and  health issues, along with Lucy's recent auto accident which has left her with a badly injured leg, put paid to that and it was cancelled. Bevlea, Lucy and I decided to rent a unit in Wagga for a few days, drive up and surprise her.

To ensure that it all went smoothly we secretly co-ordinated it with her hubby. We should have known better... never involve a man in planning says Bevlea LOL....... Barb had a day procedure scheduled for day two of our three day visit - and with the first day taken up largely by traveling our time together was briefer than we would have liked - but that made our time together all the more important. The weather was very kind to us, sunny and warm without being too hot.

 We headed up on the Monday morning - stopped off in Culcairn and had a light lunch at the fabulous bakery there that Bevlea and Lucy had partaken of on a previous visit.   Photo courtesy of Bevlea's blog...

 

While Barb was having her surgery on Tuesday we took a side trip up to Gundagai, I had never been there, but can now say I have visited and seen the Tucker Box. Bevlea took a pic of the three of us there...

We had morning tea in Gundagai itself before this pic and also Bevlea and I took some photos of the old bridges there.

The  heritage railway station is a fantastic place for pics, really old fashioned, just imagine the years of passengers that has come and go here..

 Might do this in Black and white like Bevlea has as it sure looks great, go and have a look at her Rusty Ramblers Blog.

While I was away My DH did some renovations to our kitchen as we are moving to a new job, with a house provided in the country. It is Managing a Christian Camp in Cheshunt, so altho it is a less stressful job than we have had it will keep us busy with lots of renovtions etc, as its quite old fashioned looking and needs an update.

Here is the bench he upgraded with a paint product that makes your bench look like formica etc. Very good and very easy. He also put new vinyl tiles on the floor too. He is a good man :-) A keeper......

I am going to miss my kitchen as the house we are going to has a "very small" kitchen/dining /lounge area, oh dear, Us in our 60s and 3 little children, hmmmmmmmmm might need some renovations methinks....

Anyway. I better go pack some more.

Oh BTW, we finally got custody of the other grandchild Aroha, Toria and I went to NZ and bought her back last week, she is a real cutie, but has some routine issues she needs to learn...... 

Morning hair look :-)

First morning back, and Paul was keen to help her with breakfast, he is so pleased to have her here at long last, as is Toria and Geoff and I too.......... Jared and Pauline are thrilled too, as it was what they wanted all along, until they can get themselves together properly.
anyway, MUST get and pack another box or two.

Hinged Canvas for Paperarts and family stuff.

The October swap for Paperarts was a Hinged Reversed Halloween Canvas, it was supposed to be 5x7 but I couldn't find that size so did it 6x8. Hope that's ok Barb :-)
I did mine more in the Spooky line with images from Itkupilli as I am not a fan of Halloween at all, very American. At first  I was not even going to do this swap, but after seeing Bevlea's fabulous canvas I changed my mind and decided to the same type of theme as hers.

I hope that whoever gets my canvas will like it and isn't expecting pumpkins with candles in it :-)

I have painted the outer edge of the canvas with Golden burnt umber and over painted it with Light umber then a coat of micaceaous  iron oxide  , then on went some trusty black texture paste as well over the staples on the canvas and then more micaceaous iron oxide. I even branched out a bit and put some mica on the windows.

Family Stuff.
Well, the children's mother decided she could not hack it here in Australia any-more as she  wanted to be with our son, her partner back in New Zealand. So she lost the plot last Sunday night and threw a hissy fit and we booked her a ticket home. She left the children with us on Tuesday morning (voluntary, abandoning them) Haven't heard from her since. Quite frankly after talking with the neighbours here who were home during the day when we were at work, hearing what was happening, (wish they had told us), the children  are better off with us even though it is going to mean a huge upheaval for us all and childcare at least 3-4 days a week etc for them. Victoria is blossoming in just the few days the mum has been gone. Some (family) may never understand why we insisted on having them here in the first place instead of leaving them back in Kerikeri with other family members on Geoff's side of our family as they all wanted, but the past history with their mother has proved correct, she is incapable of looking after them . Anyway, they are two precious little souls that need a loving stable environment to blossom in. And with help from our work colleagues  and our friends here we will get by.

STRUGGLING along

Really where does the time go. Since my last post and my trip to the Gold Coast for a work conference which was great, things on the NZ home front have developed to " I don't know what is happening really" our NZ family look like they want to keep our grandchildren who have been taken from the parents. This has caused me and Geoff undue stress and upset  as we never thought that our family would do this. They were to look after them until passports were arranged and I could go over after the Gold Coast trip and bring them back here. So now we have to go to New Zealand for a Family Group Conference and have to see what the family who have never been involved in any of the previous FGC's decide.
Really the children should be with us as the Grandparents. It is our sons wish that we take them for the time it needs for the parents to get themselves together or what ever they decide to do with thier lives.
So life has been a bit up and down for me, but the Children are worth it all, it will be a huge  life-style change  for us.

This photo of Paul and Toria was taken on Paul's 3rd birthday last weekend.  I am sure they will enjoy places like Werribee zoo, Melbourne zoo, Luna park etc that we can take them too over here.

We are going to NZ on the 1st May as FGC is 4th May, but we have to travel up to Kaikohe.


ARTwise not a lot. see next post.