We've been awarded the “Brilliant Weblog Award”!!

We have been awarded The “Brilliant Weblog Award” by Maribeth at Dackel Princess.

Her award came from over at DianeCA’s Metamorphoses. I have been a fairly long time reader of the "Dackels", and I just love to read about the trials and tribulations of the posts. I have also been inspired with how 'M' has been going with her weekly trips to WW and her successes every week.

I have also enjoyed seeing how other countries spend their time in the opposite climatic conditions to what we have here 'downunder'! Whilst she had endured the snow, thick snow, we basked in summer, and now that we have winter, it simply does not compare to her winter in the USA!

So, thanks mate for the award, its a beauty!!

Now it is time for me to nominate a few people that I enjoy reading.

The rules for this award are:

• The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
• Link to the person you received your award from.
• Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
• Put links to those blogs on yours.
• Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

I now have the honor of sending the award on to seven other bloggers. Seven?? Hmm, let me think...

I, WE have very different choices here at burntofferings, but here are my picks: Expatmom, Authorblog, Canberra's Got Style, WrittenInc, mr.monkey.suit, The Toy Society & Meet me at Mikes.

A birthday celebration x 3!!!

Yesterday, we had a celebration... Not only ONE birthday, but a total of THREE!!!

The day started out lovely, sun was shining, birds were singing... We even had a spa nice and early at 8am! Our Chinese visitors were having a sleep in, and we had a peacful breakfast. After the visitors had their breakfast, we loaded up the car and headed down to Bicentennial Park for the Birthday Parties.

When we got there, Tables were being set up, and nibbles weree dispersed around at each table as people were arriving. Both the babies were here already, and naturally, we took over baby holding duties!

BBQ was alight and 'The Boys' were over cooking, and I was sitting back and thought, as it was getting a little cloudy, to check the radar on my mobile phone... It was not looking very pretty, as there was a cloud front coming from the NW, and a similar front from the SW, both heading for Homebush! I mentioned this to the organisers, and we started to move the Grandparents into the undercover area, just in case! Food being served and a gust of wind, and slam bam thank you mam, it POURED down! Not only this, but the wind made the rain almost horizantle as well! With the wind, the temperature also plumeted, and it was very bitter, so the decission was made to go to Ya Ya's house near by for desserts and coffees (YUMM), as well as the opening of presents...

Now you can watch a slide show here or here are some shots to see anyway...

Birthday x 3!

1. Rosie..., 2. Rosie's 'Ice Cream Cone' cake, 3. Rosie 1st B'day, 4. Hat-Riley....-MOB, 5. Riley walking, 6. Riley's 'Blue Bear' cake, 7. Lou & Rosie, 8. Nan's 89th B'day, 9. Oh-Paddy.... Blowing out candles, 10. Riley and Alexandra rolling, 11. Will riding his bike..., 12. Rosie, kiss from mum...

The owner of the bed is...

Macc has, stricken ALL over the house, various beds of all shapes, colours and sizes. He even has 'ownership' of the sheepskin that is beside the bed! This is not the problem, however, but it is more of a problem for Jasmine! You see, she will look longingly at it, but look out if you were to pick her up and try to put her on it! She will wriggle, squirm scratch at you if she even thinks you're going to place her on the bed. She will even be so quick as to be off it in less than a millisecond!

BUT, the other day, I was upstairs in the study on the computer up there, it has a better sitting position for me. I turned around to find miss Jasmine on HIS bed! I thought, who took my kitty?! Anyways, Macc must have known something was amiss, as about 20-30mins later, he came up to find HER on HIS bed! He looked, sniffed, looked at me as if to say... "well go on, get her off MY bed..." In the end, he gave up, and sat himself beside it, and dropped his nose on it just to rub it in that he was still the OWNER of the bed!

Bed owner is...

An update....

Well, the transfer happened last week, the medications have (and still are being) taken, and this morning was an early start...

5.25am, Macc was barking at something (most likely a bat in one of the fruit trees or a neighbours cat helping its self to his bowl) outside as he was enjoying the warmth inside. I got an sms from my brother saying last night it was -4.5 in the Blue Mountains! So, at 5.30am when the alarm went off, a quick breakfast of a coffee and toast (with Vegemite) get dressed and it was off to have the blood test at 7am!

Normally, by this stage, things had started to happen that were NOT meant to happen, but so far, all is good. I will not get a phone call from the clinic until around 1pm, so we are waiting on tender hooks at the moment...

Update to follow...

UPDATE: (1:45pm AEST) A big fat NEGATIVE... L is distraught... At least we have another 5 in storage. The thing is, how long do we wait and rest?

Thematic Photographic: Patterns

Ok, so here we go again with Carmi's (WrittenInc) 'Thematic Photographic.

Everyday, I come to work and have to endure some amazing sights. If not Sydney Harbour, the Harbour Bridge, Opera House etc... but that of WHERE I actually work. It really is an amazing site with lots of really cool things all happening at different times throughout the year.

So, here are a few shots of this weeks theme of 'Patterns'. The pattern being replicated throughout the shots, is an arch. In the 'Greenbow', you can see how the flower stem from the giant Agave is arching under the weight of its stem.

Greenbow

In this shot, the soft arching lines of the lawn under the Ficus Tree is there to somewhat protect this old girls root lines. It is also a different species of turf to that of the main species that does not require as frequent mowing, and is also shade tolerant.

Tree of Light

And finally, in this shot, you will notice that the fungi have a somewhat phallic appearance about them, however, they still have a very arch appearance about them as well.

Fungi Sydney

So, don't forget to go over and see Carmi (WrittenInc), comment there (and here as well) just to share the comment cheer and to see some wonderful interpretations of 'Patterns'!

Thematic Photographic, SIGNS: IVF Transfer Room 2

Again, whit credit to Carmi at Written Inc, here is this weeks 'Thematic Photographic'!

This is sort of how we spent yesterday, Wednesday Sydney Time, with it being a 'double day'!

IVF Transfer Room 2

Your turn: Here are the Thematic Photographic guidelines:

1. Carmi will post a new entry every Wednesday evening.
2. Each entry has a unique theme. This week's his theme is...signs!
3. You post a similarly themed image over on your blog.
4. You paste a link to your entry in a comment over at Written inc and maybe here as well.
5. If you've already posted something that fits (on a blog, Facebook, MySpace, wherever) simply post the link to the existing entry.
6. You may post one per day, many per day, one each day of the entire week, whatever suits your fancy. This is all about sharing, so feel free to share to your heart's content!
7. Please share this link with friends, too. We like when lots of folks have fun with photography.

Non Operational Internet, Moving Mother and a Family RANT...

Yesterday, our ISP had a bit of a 'meltdown'... From the time we got home after L's appointment, we had nothing but 'Unable to connect'! This was sooooo frustrating, as there was so much to tell!

But I will leave that for another post or L will tell you over at her blog.

BUT, now, things have returned to normal (ISP) and we are back on air. But today, I am home sick with the flu, which L is in the final stages of and given it to me (nothing like her caring sharing attitude, hey?). Even though today here in Sydney, it is a lovely morning, ice on the windscreen of the car, a small amount of frost on the grass, it is actually turned out to be quite a nice warm day of 16 degrees. Lovely weather for a rest and relaxation don't you think!

My mum is moving house today, and even though I had wanted to go out and assist, as I do not think I can muster the energy. She does have a removalist after all, and she completely understands how we are placed at the moment (IVF) and can not help anyway! My brother is out there, as with my nephew from my (apparent) sister. I say apparent, as we had a falling out just after we bought our house three years ago. We have not spoken since, well I have to her, but unless mum has been there, there is never a reply, so I no longer bother with it all really. I don't know why she is still carrying on after all this time! Anyways, end of rant... She has to have everything out of the house by 2.30pm BUT she can not move into her new house until AFTER 2.30pm. It is called a simultaneous settlement. I am glad that when we moved, we still had the old house that we could take some time to move things across, much easier!. So, with only 2 hours to go, and the removalists in, good luck mum!

WW # 28: Tea-riffic

Just a 'small' collection of the order... She will be drinking tea for years!

Tea-riffic

wordless wednesday

Here it is, the SPA!

OK, so as you know, we have been kinda busy with Chinese Teachers on Home-stay (first a week with two, followed by a week of three) and with the house painting. We now have only two bedrooms to go, so that will be done in a couple of weeks as one bedroom in particular, will have major work to be done with regards to the rendering...

But, as in previous posts, we did say that we would be getting a spa. First there was the purchase, buying the Gazebo (now a Pavilion), pouring of the slab, construction of the Pavilion and finally delivery of the spa. It was a very tight 'squeeze through the Garage (you could here the bubble wrap 'popping' as it went through...) and then up onto the slab. It was no mean feat in getting it there with one of the tyres on the trolley 'popping' and going flat!

When the B.I.L and Co were building the Pavilion, I got L to go to Bunnings to get some electrical cable for some lighting I was intending to do; one externally that the F.I.L found for us, and the other to be above the spa itself for some additional light. This one, a Chandelier, we actually got from IKEA!

Now these photos were taken at around 5pm last night, and was when the sun was going down and the light was low... It was also after a storm we had that left some parts of Sydney with 'Soft Hail' or a rare event of 'Snow'! (Read and see a video here)

Spa in Pavilion

Spa in Pavilion

For now, it's done!!!

Whilst over the last two weeks we have had some Chinese teachers staying with us, we are now on a 12 day break before we get another couple of teachers. In a separate post in a couple of days, I will tell you all about the latest lot of teachers. So, without having to prepare additional dinners etc, we can now move back onto 'normal' blogging!

After just over three years, we have finally (and almost all) painted the interior of the house. Not that it was all that bad a colour, but its amazing how just a wall vent almost falling off in one bedroom led to the whole house being painted!

Painted lounge room!!

1. Kitchen, 2. Kitchen 250708, 3. Laundry & Kitchen, 4. Lounge Room 250708, 5. Lounge Room: - Courtyard, 6. Lounge Room 250708

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

For now, we're done, but with two bedrooms to go, we are approaching the finishing line. After this, and we have already started looking at pricing, we will be replacing the bench top in the kitchen to a granite one!