Happy HallO'ween

Happy HallO'ween to all!!!!
Li'l Devil & Bart
Bart with his skateboard.
(L to R) Emma, Alexandra, Georgia and William.


Trick or treat anyone? My darling kiddlies have been soooooo excited about Halloween. They planned their own costumes - William (Bart Simpson) and Alexandra (Li'l Devil).Such a cute Little Devil!!!

We also had some friends with us, Emma and Georgia. Emma is the witch complete with black cat and Georgia is in the red polka dot dress.

Kisses Trish xxx

My Niece - Erina Isabel McCarn

Introducing my beautiful niece ERINA ISABEL isn't she gorgeous!!! So pretty - just like a dolly!

I'm so proud of Christa, Stephen and Erina, I just wish I could see them.

Christa says: "Here is our beautiful daughter 7 days old today. This photo was taken on Wednesday, before she turned bright yellow!

She decided she'd had enough of life on the inside, at 36 weeks and one day. After a vacuum extraction, and the cord around her neck, with a purple head and very silent for a while after, she entered the world. She went to the Neonatal unit and is still there, unfortunately she has not been with Mummy in mummy's hospital room like everyone else on my ward. I was discharged today, but will still almost live at the hospital until she is coming home, maybe by Saturday. (fingers crossed)

She is pre-term and low birth weight, and the obstetrician said my placenta just ran out of gas, which Erina sensed and created her own cortisol to mature her own lungs before she came out. Usually little early babies need a hydrocortisone injection before they come out, but she has healthy lungs thank god, so Dr said she must have made her own cortisol- she is clever already!

She could not suck when she first came out, so had a nasogastric tube inserted for feeds.

As she had a massive bruise on her head from the vacuum extraction, and this and the fact that she is little and premature, she got jaundiced, and required UV light for 48 hours.(thurs/fri) The jaundice and the uv lamp makes her really drowsy and she took a step backward in her feeds, too tired to suck- so them going half in a bottle and half down her tube, sometimes all down her tube. after 24 hours without the lamp, they took another blood sample, (her poor little heel) and her jaundice sprung back with a vengence and she is back under it again.- prob until wed, When she is under it she is just wearing a nappy, though less settled this time. Her feeding is increasing, and although she is not her birth weight yet, she gained weight the last 3 weighs (only 5 grams this morning!)

Anyway, gotta get back to the hospital. Finish the story later".

Kisses Trish xxx

How many storms can we having in a weekend? Depends if you are camping or not!

Alison (the Games Co-Ordinator) and (L to R) Jack H, Jack Lightbody, Connor, William, Connie, Mollie (right at the back), Alexandra, Tayla, Camille and Alison. They are preparing for the treasure hunt which the boys won by about 1 minute.

Our Home for the weekend!!!


Alison & Dave's new purchase!!!

Storms - huh did we have storms. I am so proud of everyone in tents because I sure wouldn't be sleeping in a tent with the wild weather we had on Thursday and Friday nights. After the pink ribbon morning tea the Klings and Lightbody's headed down to BroadwaterTouristPark for a long weekend. We were all set up before storms and rain and wind and tornados started so that was a blessing. On Friday at lunchtime the Harris' arrived along with Kev and Connie and early evening the Poupardin's and Julie arrived. 19 of us altogether that includes our 9 children. They all had a ball and were angels all weekend. The adults had a great time too - the kids were happy, we were relaxed and even played a few games which made my cheeks hurt from laughing and Ian hurt because he didn't know something about me!!!! We played a Mr & Mrs game which was fantastic - we had to remember things about each other.

On Saturday night we all went into Surfers to the Hard Rock Cafe Surfers Paradise we had fantastic meals and Alison, Michelle and I had beautiful cocktails. Alison had yummy sweet one, Michelle had a to die for cosmopolitan and I had my favourite a Margarita!!! Yummo. Afterwards we went and had ice-cream.

Sunday at 11.00am we were all out and on our way home. Oh well, only a few more weeks until next trip. Ian and I were in holiday mode and could have gone on for another week or so but it wasn't to be.

Erina Update

Erina has responded really well to the light therapy for her jaundice. She is sleeping lots which is good for her development. She still has her nasal gastric tube so she is getting good size (60ml) feeds every three hours. Mum arrived over in Perth Friday afternoon and she will probably be there for 3 weeks or so. All is well!!!

Swap News

I want to say a big hello to Kathy my swap partner. She is from Las Vegas and we are doing a christmas garland swap through GaGa for Garlands. Hello Kathy - hope you don't think we are too made over here.

Have a good Monday everyone.

Kisses Trish x

Pink Ribbon Morning Tea

Party bags for everyone!! And what beautiful tables.

Marilyn and her lovely ladies.

This basket was one of the beautiful raffle gifts from Lilly Cottage.

My gorgeous group of girlfriends (the Besties Club) (L to R) Lisa, Claire, Juliette, me, Alison and Julie. (Michelle couldn't be there but she donated some money to us - thank you M).

Here are some pictures of the PINK RIBBON MORNING TEA held at the North Pine Country Park Rotunda. It was a HUGE success with the help and support of everyone we raised a total of $557.95. We had delicious cakes, muffins, slices and danishes as well as fresh juice, punch, tea and coffee. This was all thanks to the wonderful Ladies of Lilly Cottage and their helpers. We couldn't have done it without the support of everyone - THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you to the following people:

5th Avenue Jewellery, Alison Lightbody, Cynthia Spiteri, Deb McCullogh - Diva, Juliette Needs, Jan & Les Bennell Automotive Airconditioning & Electrical, Marilyn Farnfield, Nutrimetics, Culinary Creations by Peta & Linda, Laura, Jan, Maria, and all the lovely helpers from Lilly Cottage.

I look forward to organising the next one. Hope you will be able to join us!

Kisses Trish x

Update on Erina

Baby Erina - 2 days old now. She's doing really well considering she is so teeny weeny. I spoke to Mum and Christa and between them I have found out the following.

Erina will be staying in Special Care for around 2 weeks. Christa is expressing milk which is being fed to her through a nasal tube. And every second feed she is being woken for a bottle. They are letting her do loads of sleeping so that her pertuatory gland gets the rest it needs to make her strong. She has only lost 70grams which is really good considering. Normal expected weight loss would be up to 230grams.

Her lungs are fine and she has a good cry. Christa and Stephen gave her her first bath tonight and now her long dark hair is all fluffy and standing on end (just like Christa when she was a baby). Tomorrow Erina is having her heal prick and a blood test done. The doctors are suspecting that she has jaundice but that is a very common thing in all babies so she may be put under an infered light to help her along with that.

I really want to see her - I'm so jealous of Mum as she's flying over on Friday to see them all. Mum will be under strict instructions to give Erina loads and loads of cuddles and kisses from her Auntie Trishie.

Tomorrow is the Pink Ribbon Morning Tea. Linda and I are all prepared and we are looking forward to a fantastic day. After that we are heading off with the "besties" (Lightbody's, Harris', Poupardins and Prices) for a weekend down at Broadwater. Looking forward to it - it should be a big laugh!!

Kisses Trish xxx

Pink Ribbon Preparations

Wow after our wonderful newspaper article we have been inundated with bookings. I am so happy that we have our 40 guests. Linda and I are making the final arrangements and we both look forward to a fantastic fund raising event.












Thank you to the following sponsors for your generous support:

• 5th Avenue Jewellery
• Alison Lightbody
• Cynthia Spiteri
• Deb McCullogh
• Juliette Needs
• Les Bennell Automotive
• Marilyn Farnfield
• Nutrimetics
• Peta's Culinary Creations

and drum roll please - Linda, Laura and Jan from Lilly Cottage who without their help we would not be able to do this.

Will post loads of photos of the event soon.

Kisses Trish xxx

ERINA Update

Baby Erina Isabel is now 1 day old. She is still in special care however she is out of the humidity crib. They put in a nasal tube so that Erina can rest - she's soooo tired, so they are feeding her with expressed breast milk from Christa. Christa is really well, and I spoke to Stephen last night who was over the moon with his little girl. Also very proud of his big girl.

They expect that Erina should come home in a week or so which will be wonderful.

Kisses

Aunty Trish xxxxx

Our Maggie - Dusty!

Simply had to share our beautiful Magpie - Dusty.

William named him - how do I know it's a him? Well throughout nesting season the mummy magpies get big - they have to look after the babies don't you know. So the daddies stay relatively the same size. Dusty is very unique to us. He has a gumby toe on his left foot. He comes to visit all times during the day and he sits in the same spot every time. If I don't notice he is there he will warble for his dinner. Sometimes I make him wait just so I can hear their beautiful sound. Over the past couple of months Dusty has let me get closer and closer. Yesterday I put food just inside the front door and he came in and got it. I'm hoping over the next couple of weeks he will let me pat him.

This is onother maggie coming to see what's so good.

Magpies are my very favourite bird - most people dislike and even hate them. I know that they are beautiful and clever. Magpies are known for swooping but as has been proved the last couple of weeks - they only swoop if they fear for their babies. There is a relatively "highly strung" maggie around the corner from us and he is very protective. Some boys on bikes have been taunting him and he is known to swoop bikes. However he doesn't swoop people walking - he knows that they will do him and his family no harm.

I have two stories that I tell everyone and I seriously believe this to be true.

Magpies are very clever. Do you know that if a baby maggie falls from a nest and can't get back up, you can nail an icecream bucket to the same tree and put the baby in there and the mummies and daddies will still look after it as well as the babies in their nest.

If you are kind to a magpie and feed it, the magpie will tell all his friends and they will never swoop you.

Moral of the story - Be kind to magpies!

More information on Magpies

Kisses Trish xxx

HAPPY BIRTH-DAY!!

CONGRATULATIONS

BABY GIRL

Name: Erina Isabel McCarn

Born: 22nd October 2007

Time: 5.17pm (Bne time)

Weight: 5 lb - 2267g

Length: 18.3in - 46.5cm

Mother and baby doing well, father and grandmother still recovering. Mum is relieved, excited, disappointed (she's not there), overwhelmed, happy, blessed and every other emotion we can think of. Mum will be meeting Erina on Friday so that will be lovely. I have gifts here for her and must go to the shop tomorrow and get her a couple of cupcake singlets, and see if they will swap over the cushion for a more "girly" one.

This morning at 2.00pm Perth time Christa and Stephen went to hospital after her waters had broken. Her contractions were 5 min apart when she got there and then they slowed. They put her on a drip to speed up labour, which was slow (15 hours) and Erina was born naturally at 3.17pm Perth time (2 hours behind Queensland).

I've spoken to Christa and she is very emotional - Erina is beautiful with lots of dark hair, she is in special care just for the moment as she is so little. Erina Isabel wasn't due to enter the world for another 4 weeks yet - poor Christa was due to start maternity leave this Thursday. She's actually on call tonight!!

My darling family is not as computer literate as me so Erina might be 12 years old before we get a photo on email. But having said that Christa did promise to email me some photos asap.

Some pre-Erina photos taken a couple of weeks ago.

Kisses Aunty Trish xxx

Bon Appetito!

Our kitchen renovations are almost complete!!!! Here is our old kitchen - the vinyl doors had peeled and it was quite tired. Ian and I are planning on staying here for a long time (who can afford to move with house prices and fees the way they are!!) so we organised for a beautiful new kitchen and we updated all the appliances too. Bon Appetit Kitchens were absolutely fab. The designer Kris did a fantastic job of making the most of the existing shape of the kitchen and the cabinet fitters were wonderful. The planning and installation was like a well oiled machine - who'd have thought I just saw their sign one day whilst driving along and I had kitchen measurements on me and I just popped in on the off chance to see if anyone was free to give me a quote. And from there it was 6 weeks and absolutely wonderful service. I'm so happy with it. The tiler and plasterer are just to finish off and the unenviable task of repainting the interior of the house begins. We are in no rush so it shall be my project for the next few months.

This is the fellow dismantling the old kitchen.
By the end of the first day they had all the bottom cabinets in.

The second day they completed the rest which was: installing new pantry and doors, overhead cupboards and rangehood, fixing all the tops down, installing double bin and undersink organiser underneath the sink, cut and installed the sink and stovetop, installed oven and siliconed all gaps. They left at about 2.30 and the plumber came in after them and plumbed in our fridge water and did the sink and dishwasher connections. Water at last!!!

Day 3 was the electricians turn to do all plugs and new points, hook up the stove and oven and install a kill switch for the stove. It was also when I repacked the kitchen - I haven't had a pantry this neat ever.

And this is the "almost" finished result - simply beautiful isn't it. It seems so much bigger than the last kitchen but it is the same footprint....mmmmm don't know what it is yet might be lighter colour and more streamlined design. All in all I'm over the moon.

Kisses Trish x

Hot off the press...

Well here is!!!The eagerly awaited article for the Pink Ribbon Morning Tea. I was so excited to see the paper this morning on the net. Here the lovely Linda and I are showcasing a little taste of what is to come next Thursday.

The girls from Lilly Cottage are organising the beautiful high tea type morning tea for us to celebrate and support National Breast Cancer Foundation . We will have merchandise for sale, raffle tickets for the most beautiful prizes and a lucky door prize. The celebration starts at 9.30am at the North Pine Country Markets, Dayboro Road, Petrie in the Rotunda. Cost is $15.00. Don't forget to wear something PINK! Bookings can be made via email or call me on 0402 791 755.

It should be such a fun day and it will be dedicated to the loving memory of my beautiful Auntie Joyce. Auntie Joyce lost her battle with breast cancer a few years ago. Unfortunately breast cancer is all too common, and through education and support we can help breast cancer victims and their loved ones.

Kisses Trish x

Footy Presentation

Today, we all attended William's football presentation.

He was very proud. He loves his new trophy. They got some lovely things. His photo, yearbook, penant flag, trophy, and a lovely big towel with the crushers logo and his name on it. Ian got one aswell as he was assistant coach this year. Ian also got a dozen Crownies - mmmmm I think Mummy deserves some of them!!! William only played 13 games this season (should have played 18) but he missed 5 games as he had a scull fracture early in the year from falling off Ian's ute while he was playing. He scored 5 tries and converted 2 goals - what a star!!

We don't know if William will play rugby league again next year. He is looking at soccer next season and he's getting a taster by playing 5-a-side for ACE Albany Creek during the Spring.

Next post will probably be of the kitchen and shade sail as they are both being installed this week - nail biting!!!

Kisses Trish x

Run to Paradise......

Summer's here!!!!!

Nothing better - sipping a cool drink (aka Crownie), sitting in the sun, blue skies, shimmering water, palms blowing and kids squealing. That's what is going on now.... Evie (our darling little neighbour and Alex's best friend), the gorgeous William, an excited Alexandra and Daddy are in the pool.

Manny (our greyhound - retired of course) is looking to the skies and breathing in the warm air - even he looks happy. Lily - Manny's shadow is relaxing back on one of the deck chairs enjoying being close to the kids, Ian and I.

To top this off we have Australian Rock playing - Hooters, Midnight Oil, Hunters & Collectors, The Choir Boys and Icehouse to mention a few - the old rock Australia was built on - songs like "run to paradies, this is australia, alone with you, great southern land, i was only 19".

What a way to spend the day hey!!!!

Kisses Trish x

Our 11th Wedding Anniversary

October 12, 1996 at 3.30pm Ian and I were married at St George's Church in Birkdale. Afterwards we celebrated our reception at the Wellington Point Sports Club.

Tonight we celebrated by going to the Breakfast Creek Hotel, going for a drive around Newstead, New Farm and Hamilton and finished off the night with a beautiful ice-cream from Baskin Robbins.

Ian is so lovely - even pulled my chair out for me at dinner!!! We chatted about our dreams for the future and enjoyed each other's company. It was a fantastic night and thanks to Dave and Alison for having the kiddlies for us. Although, I do miss them.

I wrote him this poem for our Anniversary.

This is what you mean to me…….

My darling Ian
You are the sun in my day,
The clouds in my storm.
You are the life in my life;
My heart and my soul.
Your love knows no bounds;
Nor does it forget to give.
Always surrounded by your love,
Is the reason that I live.

Our treasured love grows each and every day;
I wake up in the morning and treasure all your ways.
You are my sun, my moon and sky;
You are my wings with which to fly.
Our love everlasting and growing each day;
I treasure you more in every way.

This poem was written for you on our Eleventh Wedding Anniversary
I love you My Darling.
Yours always Trish xxx

I look forward to the next anniversary and a hundred more.

Have a lovely weekend, we have work to do in the yard, dinner with the girls, William's Rugby League breakup/presentation and I have to remember to do before photos for the kitchen which starts to be renovated on Tuesday.

Kisses Trish x