Cassie's Cuddles

Last night we went to a friends house to play some board games. We left Cassandra with Jared’s parents and took Camden and Alycia (Steph and Lach are still at camp), we pick them up today. Our friends live in Upwey where they have limited parking space, so we had a little oppsy with our car getting stuck between two levels. Thankfully a friend  has a four wheel drive so he was able to pull us out. We won’t talk about the strange metal noise that we heard on the way home coming from under the car…ugh!

I’ll just confess now, that I hate Trivial pursuit, because I am dumb! The only questions that I got right were the chick flick questions, how sad is that? We then played pictionary, do you believe that three guys won that?

I hope that everyone has time to reflect and to plan for the year ahead today. That you might consider dedicating this year to serve the risen Christ. Our life is but a vapour, so we want it to count for something…let us invest in eternal treasures.

Monday night Jared’s parents arrived to stay for a couple of weeks. It was Julie’s 60th  birthday so we went out for tea to Sophia’s. The great challenge was to eat the huge meals that were given to us. I ordered a chicken snitzelEven I could not eat it all, and that was with Cassandra and Camden’s help! Everyone liked the meals that they ordered. For dessert I shared a gelati with Cassandra, even that was huge!Jared had a banana crepe, Julie had some cake with coffee in it, and George had some yummy chocolate thingy, delivered with about 1 litre of icescream scooped on top! We all passed our desserts around and felt totally ill afterward, how piggy was that?

The day after Christmas was a quiet day where we potted around the house doing general cleaning. Lachlan helped Jared paint the gate.Cassandra played in the bath with her new toys (supervised of course!)and I figured out what to do with all of that extra christmas meat, make family roasts to put in the freezer!

On Sat. it was Lachlan’s 12th birthday, so we had a little lunch to celebrate, and then he went off with Stephanie to PYV camp. We drove to Bacchus Marsh to drop them off. The theme this year is “Cops and Robbers” they have to dress as one of the above. Steph has a police outfit, and because Lach didn’t have a balaclava I suggest a stocking, he was horrified! Here is a photo of him with a blow up gun.He looks ugly don’t you think? Remind me not to go out with a stocking on my head! As it was he “accidently” forgot to take it, ugh!

Sunday we went to Belgrave in the morning and then to the Presbyterian Chruch of Eastern Aust. for the evening. We had two good sermons!

Today is Tuesday. Cassandra is at last asleep next to me. The G’parents just got back with Jared, and I need to think about tea, so see you.

What a lovely day! We woke up at 6am, and I called out “Merry Christmas” to wake the children. They came up carrying their sacks, then they opened their presents on our bed. There was a lot of “Wows”. Alycia and Steph gave presents to everyone too. Camden gave one to Lachlan and Cassandra.Belgrave didn’t have a church service so we went to Heathmont, where there was a good message and well worded songs. We then drove to Buln Buln after picking up the christmas meat from home.

Louise, my sister in-law had gone to alot of trouble with many different salads, and some cute desserts. This is what she made for the children.I was able to take a few pictures of my beautiful neices and nephew with my little blessings. It was a bit sunny so it was difficult for them to look up. I love the photo though!In the afternoon I spent my time in the pool with the children, it was cold! I wish that I could spend more time getting to know these little people, the time just flies though. In a blink of an eye they will be adults with families of their own, ugh!

Now we are home, Cassandra is exhausted. The boys are revved up, Steph is happy to find some solace, and Alycia is at a loose end. G’night everyone, and Godbless!

Yesterday Jared’s parents came over and worked very hard on removing rust from metal  duvas off the pool, then painted them. The pool guy turned up for five minutes to see what was going on and then promised to come back at 7am today, guess what? Yup, that’s right, he did a no show, again! Steph, Lachlan and I went and did some cutting etc for some friends who are preparing for a camp.I have always wanted a yellow rose by the front door since my first unit as a single girl had one, and it was beautiful, so…Jared planted me one, and it has just bloomed. This is one of the sweetest things Jared has done for me, remembering, and then planting. Don’t you think that it is a lovely rose?

Today I caught up on the washing (“wow” I hear you say, but it has to be done!) We have recieved a few gifts in response to our cake and bickie tins in our street. I didn’t want to give anyone any stress about giving us anything, in fact, I can honestly say that it didn’t cross my mind that we would get anything, but…We have riecived a box of chocolates, a packet of freddos, and a basket of lollies, and a thank you card! I have been madly writing everyone’s name down so that I can remember them.

This afternoon as “The Basin tradition” has it, the firebrigade arrived to give all the children lollies. I am amazed by how many children come pouring out of the houses, in our street and others.

It was great to finally have the neighbourhood boys talk to me, they all want more rocky road! Boys try to act all cool, but they can be quite sweet when they aren’t trying to impress. While waiting for her lollies, Cassandra was grumpy because I wouldn’t let her out of my sight..she ran away again today. She walked in bare feet for about 1km! It is by God’s grace that nothing has happened to her. What am I doing? I was tyding my linen cupboard. I couldn’t hear her, so I called, can anyone see Cassie, no one said yes, but I didn’t get up and check, and this is what happens. The side gate was open ready for the pool man, and off she went. She was nearly at the shops, when Alycia found her. She was bleeding from a cut toe.  I did buy an alarm for her, the instructions sounded complicated, but I need to put it on her. I must get distracted too easlily. After the children had their baths, we went off to look at the houses that are lit up. Jared and I couldn’t get over how many people get into decorating their homes with lights, and Santas. I think it is pretty, but I also feel a sadness that Christ isn’t proclaimed instead of Santa.

Have a nice Christmas everyone, may you know the peace that only Christ can give.

What a mixture of a day! I started off sweeping and mopping, while Jared worked on pulling the pool apart. He evidently found a lot of spiders under the liner and experimented with stabbing a few with his screw driver. One spider squirted and he got the dead spider remnants on his face! Eww!! Steph could even see it, yuck! Who would of thought that spiders have guts!

After lunch we had a visit from Lian and two of her three children. They brought gifts with them, yay! I’m so shallow. Cassandra recieved a towel with a frog on it which she has been carrying around all day. Camden got some freaky glasses with some false teeth (they could come in handy when my time comes). Lachlan got some young man fragrance, to make the girls swoon. Lian also gave me a lovely spotty cup with some yummy hot chocolate mix, thank you Lian. While they were here, our new couch arrived, oh man, you should never watch removalists, let alone listen to them. After dropping and shoving, the couch and chair landed in one piece in our lounge. My chair could be a bed!I look like I’m in a cocoon! I would like to say that I would emerge as a beautiful butterfly, but I don’t think that the chair has magical powers.

The pool man didn’t turn up again (suprise, suprise). He is now going to come on Wednesday, in the mean time Jared has just asked his parents to come and work on it tommorow. Watch out for those gooey spiders!

Wow, it must be Christmas time! Here are some pictures of a couple of days in pictures..

Thursday, we picked up our new second hand van. From now on we will be easy to spot, at least I will never lose the car in the shop car park!We celebrated Cassandra’s 3rd birthday. Happy Birthday little Cassie!She got this great scooter for her birthday. It’s great because it has two wheels in the front which keeps her balanced.She is such a poser!

On Friday we went to the Dandenong market, picked up Jared’s whipper snipper duva, and then to Frankston where we bought a Beige lounge suite…beige, do you believe it? Now we have bought some sheets to protect it, go figure!

We celebrated Christmas with my Mum and Dad.Today we went to Belgrave church and one generous man gave my children $50 to share between them, wow! How spoilt are my children? I really don’t want them to accept it, but I don’t want to offend the gentleman. There certainly will be some letters in the post tommorow.

This afternoon we put together 18 tins of yummy goodies for our neighbours. The last couple of days I have stayed up late to cook, rocky road, wagon wheels, mini plum puddings, banana muffins and chocolate muffins. We also had a few candy canes thrown in.

Most of our neighbours were out! Ugh! Talk about chaos! Five children all excited, tins dropping everywhere, children tripping..Two families just said that they didn’t want any, but others were happy to have them. Later in the afternoon the girls went back to the houses that were missed. We found that the teenage boys were the most eager. It is a good way to get to know our neighbours a little better too.We finished the day with painting, now we have some lovely art work drying on the clothes line!

This is my 100th post! What a lot of blabbing I have done.  Ok, so this is a picture for May Day, but let’s  just say “May you be filled with joy today”

 On Monday, I finally wrapped up all of the presents for Christmas. Personally I don’t find it enjoyable any more, I just think that everyone has too much, including myself.  I have tried to buy the children something small or useful. Steph loves books, so I got her a latin book, a history book…Alycia will leave anything on the floor, so I thought that I would get her some stories on tape, Anne of Green Gables being one. Camden has his birthday a week later, he is getting a tent (big enough for all of the children). Lachlan is getting lego and a devotional book by Spurgeon.

 Yesterday Jared, the children and I went into the city. Jared had a meeting at Melbourne Uni regarding his Doctrate. we went to the Vic market, the highlight for Jared was the jam donuts. I got the belt for G’pa at last… We had lunch at La  Porchetta for free! The waiter dropped a glass that smashed into hundreds of pieces (which landed on all of us), so as an appology we got a free lunch!  We then went looking for Jared’s special American 100% cottton paper for his masters….no can do, must get it directly from the US. We checked out the free kiddies train, avoided Santa, and had a roast dinner at Myer.

Today I had four little boys over so their mum could do some shopping. They were such good boys. My children loved the extra company. We made cubbies, played with play doh, and blew bubbles. We also had Jared’s parents drop in on their way from QLD to Jared’s brother’s place. We were suppose to pick up our new van today (jared’s brother’s old one, which we have bought), but it won’t be ready until tommorow.  We just drained  the pool and found some tad poles..

At least I hope we did! I went to the bathroom last night, and he was above the door! The door was closed, I was trapped! I screamed, Jared laughed, I screamed again, Jared continued to laugh…and well, you get the picture. Jared eventually had mercy on me (knowing that I would continue to scream), until the horrible BIG spider was dead. Now I think everything is a spider…

What a busy, but delightful weekend we have had. On Friday we went to Science Works with another family. With 9 children in total, we had no trouble using up their energy. Jared and I even got a bit of exercise too! The children all seemed nice and calm after the day.

 At night we had our homeschooling graduating night. We were the only ones who didn’t present our children with awards, perhaps I shouldn’t go there. It was nice to see the dad’s thank their wives for putting in the hard yards too. You certainly need your husband’s support when you homeschool. We wives must remember to thank our husbands for providing for us, so that we can. Most homeschoolers are on one income, and it can prove a challenge for some. We have been very blessed.

On Saturday we went (Steph, Alycia, our little friend Anna and I) to see Ellie’s ballet concert. She was fantastic. She had great energy, and perfect posture and moves. It was a long concert though, so I was really glad that I didn’t take Cassandra. At night I went with my girls to an 18th birthday party. It was a square dancing party. Once you get over the “I’m too embarrassed to dance” idea, it was enjoyable. Leah is a lovely 18 year old who seeks after God, may God continue to bless her, and be her strength.

 Today we went to Belgrave, it was a Christmas service.

Huntsman around my desk….ahhhhhhhhhh. Steoh got up to kill it, but without a weapon, duh! Now it is in hiding…speak to you later…must find huntsman..I can’t even stand looking at the picture!

Two nights ago, Steph and I stayed up until 10.30pm to try and finish school for the year. Steph was on a roll. I could tell that she was up to the tests, so I pushed her, and she came up trumps!  The next morning we were up early to go head on, and guess what, she is finished…yay!  We then went off to Chadstone, before visiting my sister, Nicky. The children love auntie Nicky, she is always fun to be around, and she spoils them. Even Cassandra, loves Nicky, she wanted to stay there.  Typically Cassandra got grumpy, and thus wrecked this photo.Perhaps it was under the influence of the red cordial? Nicky and I have discovered that we have a shared talent, we can bat a paddle ball! You bet ya. Nicky suggested that the Hood children all paddle ball, and sing at the same time, what a show!  Thanks Nicky for being a good auntie.