my friend donna

Today is my friends birthday. She is a beautiful person who is soft and gentle and has a big heart. She has a gorgeous smile and the brightest blue eyes you have ever seen.

We met way back in 1992 when we were doing a training course together. We worked in lots of places together over the years. I was lucky enough to be one of her bridesmaids in 2000. We both had children and saw them grow. We both moved house and interstate numerous times and shared our stories about the new towns and cities we had moved to along with our new jobs. Sometimes we might not talk to each other for months but it always felt like we had only spoken yesterday and we always knew we would talk on March 10 and July 28 which is my birthday.

Today I didn’t make that phone call and I missed it terribly.

My friend Donna died last year on July 22nd. I think of her every single day and wish we could talk just one more time. I wish that I had seen her more during her illness, just to sit with her and hold her hand and reminisce about all the fun times that we had shared together. I wish so many things for Donna that will never happen.

I am glad that I knew her and that we were friends. I am glad that I was lucky enough to stand by her side when she got married. I am glad that I made the trip to see her two days before she passed away and we got to laugh one more time about crazy friends and fun times. I am honoured that I was able to stand at her funeral alongside her other bridesmaid and talk about her life.

I will never forget her. I hope to always stay in touch with her beautiful family in her two children and her sister and nieces and nephews. I hope to always have the friends we shared to remember what a beautiful person Donna was.

Love you Donnawho and Happy Birthday!

TTA – Today, Tomorrow, Always

Donna and I March 2012

Donna and her two kids, Tommy and Sammy. March 2012

Donna, Sammy, Tommy and my two eldest, Angus and Elsie
March 2012

Donna and her Canberra friends at a fundraiser for her in Trundle.
March 9th 2013

Donna, Tommy and Sammy

taking stock

Here is another little project from the Blog With Pip course. It has made me stop and think about what is going on in my life at the moment, and anything that makes me slow down and breathe is a good thing.

Making : New friends
Cooking : Nothing today. YAY! Dinner with friends
Drinking : Tea
Reading: Mollie Makes
Wanting: Some cooler weather
Looking: Forward to a family wedding this weekend
Playing: With kids
Deciding: What to wear to the wedding
Wishing: Summer was over
Enjoying: The gym
Waiting: For my exam result
Liking: The thought of Autumn
Wondering: If I passed my exam
Loving: My family
Pondering: Where we will be in 5 years
Considering: Buying a bigger car
Watching: Downtown Abbey
Hoping: I passed my exam
Marvelling: At children learning
Needing: More rain
Smelling: Rain
Wearing: PJ’s
Following: Lots of new Blogs
Noticing: The new gap in Angus’ mouth
Knowing: I will be tired in the morning
Thinking: About going to bed
Feeling: Apprehensive about going back to uni next week
Admiring: A friends newborn baby boy
Sorting: Through Elsie and Claudia’s clothes
Buying: A Thermomix
Getting: Ready to go away for the wedding this weekend
Bookmarking: Lots of new blogs
Disliking: This muggy weather
Opening: Mail
Giggling: At my cheeky 21 month old
Feeling: Lucky to have 3 healthy children
Snacking: Chocolate
Coveting: Nothing
Wishing: For a beautiful day on Saturday for the wedding
Helping: Kids
Hearing: Crickets

Hope you are having a lovely day where ever you are.

A x

a cup of tea with me

I have been following a great blog called Meet me at Mikes for a while now and recently the amazing lady behind the blog Pip Lincolne, held a course to learn more about blogging. I have to admit that I wasn’t the best student and it has taken me a while to get this blog up and running. I will blame the busy ness of life in general for holding me back.

Anyway, my post today is a little segment that Pip has organised for our class called “A cup of tea with me.” So grab a cuppa (or wine/water) and learn a bit more about me.

1. Name, state and a bit about what you do on a daily basis:

My name is Alison or Ally to my friends, and mum/mumma to my kids and I live in NSW (just) on the border with Victoria.

Most of my days are spent looking after three little people and one big one. My eldest is a very busy 6 year old boy, who asks at least one thousand questions a day, loves sport and has crazy ideas about inventing things when he is older. My first daughter is nearly 5 and loves to draw, cut paper, use stickytape, paint, dance and sing, so basically the creative one. And lucky and definitely last is the next little miss who is 20 months and literally a jumping bean/climber/stuntwoman and is sending me grey. The big one that I look after is a very busy husband who works crazy hours, has a mind exploding with ideas and who loves me and his children.

On the odd days that I am not busy with them, I am a nurse and at uni part time.

2. Favourite things to do:

I think the politically correct thing to say is that my favourite thing to do is to being a mum which is obvious but on the days when I need time out, my favourite thing would be a tie between having a 4 hour pamper session or sitting in a restaurant/pub overlooking the ocean with great friends, great food and a nice wine.

3. Favourite place to be:

As above or at home as I really am a home body. I would like it even more if I could get around to doing some serious decluttering.

4. Favourite things to eat/drink:

To eat, it would probably be my homemade Sticky Date pudding with vanilla ice cream. My favourite drink would be a nice Pinot Grigio or a glass of cold water.

5. Favourite inspirations:

Most of my inspiration comes from creative people, which is why I seem to spend so much time reading blogs and getting ideas about new things to try out. My other inspiration in life is Nelson Mandela who I first starting learning about as a teenager when I spent a year living in South Africa as Rotary exchange student in 1990, which just so happened to be the year he was released from prison.

6. Something I want to know more about:

Photography, craft and how to raise children! I would love to be able to take awesome photos all of the time. I really want to learn how to crochet well and how to use my Silhouette Cameo properly. And raising children…well !

7. Some favourite blogs:

There are way too many blogs that I love but the tops ones would be (in no particular order)

So that is me in a nut shell. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you enjoyed your cup of tea.

A x

Summer is here!

Well hello Summer! Today it was ridiculously hot. 42 degrees!! In fact it is still hot. As I sit here typing at 10:45pm, it is still 30 degrees. And tomorrow is only going to be worse with a predicted top of 44. I am not a huge fan of summer and would rather it be Autumn all year round when you have beautiful days and nights cool enough to be able to sleep comfortably.

So today it was time to drag out the pop up gazebo and put up the baby pool. The girls had a nice time relaxing and drifting into their own little world and the boys had fun making noise and doing what boys do.

If nothing else they all had fun and I managed to keep them happy for a little while, until the arguing started about who splashed who.

It will be a long few days ahead with this current heat wave. Here’s hoping everyone can stay cool enough to keep their sanity and safe, away from any bushfire threats.

A moment of madness

I have just decided to do something that I have never done before and never thought that I would EVER do. I have committed to run 4km in the Mother’s Day Classic on the 11th of May!! I have no idea why I would do such a crazy thing, but there it is. And now that I have made it public, I guess there is no turning back. I have about 117 days to get fit and most importantly, learn how to run! I am lucky enough to have a lovely bunch of beautiful women who I met last year, that I will be training with and also running with on the day. It is all for a great cause, Breast Cancer research so if you have ever thought about doing it, there is no time like the present!!

Wish me luck

A x

Hello…

Hello there…

My first post! What do I write? Where do I start? I have been wanting to do this for such a long time, but I just kept putting it off thinking I had nothing interesting to say. Then I thought, what the hell? I don’t really care if I am the only one who ever reads this. It is a way to get my ideas out of my head and maybe I will stop procrastinating about all the things that I want to do in life and just start doing them.

So hopefully I get to meet lots of wonderful people along the way (if anyone is out there!)

Until next time.

A x