Teacher’s gift

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It’s the last day of school for 2008 tomorrow!  And they have two days of teachers strike for the first two days ‘back’ in 2009!

This is what we gave Dian’s teacher as a thank you gift/Christmas present.

The bookmark was woven by Dian (with a little help from me), using a weaving loom that I have had since I was her age!

I made the notebook cover to fit a standard A5 notebook, so it can be easily replaced when the first book is used.  There’s a zipper pocket for pens and the inside cover is done with contrasting fabric.  A strip of elastic is attached to the back to close the notebook.

This was quite fun to make, the hardest part was working out how to actually make it!

Yummy Vegan cooking!

Ok, I never thought I’d be deliberately cooking vegan.  Some dishes in my current repetoire are naturally so, however ME actually buying a complete vegan cookbook?  NEVER!

And yet I did.  This one – The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen

Totally drool-worthy!  Apart from the fact that I totally can’t stand even the smell of olives, there are very few recipes in here that don’t sound fantastic.  And since I leave the olives out all the time, unless they are the major ingredient then it’s really not going to make a difference to what I think of the recipe.

Yum, yum, yum!

Another lovely visitor to my garden!

This was almost heart attack material!  I went into the garden this morning to stake a tomato plant that didn’t hold up too well in our recent wild weather.  Then I looked down and the first thing I saw was brown scales under the mulch!  Of course my first thought was “SNAKE”, and it was right where I was about to step, and then I realised that it had legs.  It’s an Eastern Blue Tongue Lizard.  He’s about a foot long, so definately an adult.  Lovely!

He’s lost his tail, and you can tell it was fairly recently as it hasn’t grown back yet, and I’m really, really hoping that it wasn’t my cat who did that to it!  So until I can get a fence around the vegie gardens, which I need to do before the chooks arrive anyway, she will be an inside cat, or very closely supervised outside.

After Dian arrived home from school I showed her the lizard and then we fed him/her some banana and apple.  Obviously it liked them, ate them all up!  He’s a most welcome visitor in our garden as Blue Tongues eat snails and slugs.

Isn’t he beautiful!

*sneeze*

Is it dusty in here? I’ve been away so long it must be.

(The above has been shamelessly plagiarised from Fitcat.)  I thought it such a great way to come back after a huge blogging absence that I stole it from her blog.  I’m sure she’ll forgive me!  LOL!

There’s a lot to catch up on, so I’ll be doing a few blog posts over the next few days.

He’s gone

My man left this morning.  He should arrive in Iraq about the time we’re having breakfast tomorrow morning.

Sometimes I forget that as unemotional as he seems, he really does have a soft side.  Watching him tear up  this morning as we said goodbye reminded me that he really does feel things deeply.  It’s also nice to know that he’s sad and will miss us too!

After seeing his plane off, Dian and I went and had morning tea with a friend and did some shopping for doll’s house furniture.  The dolls house was brought in to the lounge room only yesterday, I’ll have to post more on that later when the camera batteries have charged!

And now he’s going again

Well, Eddie is now being deployed again.  This time however, he’ll be gone for six months.  I can’t say exactly where or when he’s going, however I will update you all when he’s left.

I can say that he’ll be gone for Christmas and Dian’s birthday in January.  Sigh.

And now he’s not being deployed…

There’s an old saying in the military that goes “Greatcoats on, greatcoats off” meaning that decisions change constantly.  And that’s what’s happened here.  With only four days to go, Eddie’s deployment has been cancelled.

However… watch this space!  There may be another deployment coming sometime in the future.  The good side is that we have a lot of things done now that needed to be done, and if/when he goes sometime later then we don’t have to worry about them!

Easiest Short Rows ever!

I just found the BEST tutorial for knitting short rows.  http://www.cocoknits.com/info/tutorials/shortrows.html It’s the simplest, easiest way ever, and looks great!

The end of a dream

It’s strange, I’ve been mentally writing this post for a few weeks now and I always thought that I’d be in tears and upset while writing it. Now that I’m actually doing it, I feel almost numb. The last few weeks have been a grieving process, and for now it’s over.

We won’t be having any more children. For three years we’ve been trying. I’ve charted, taken my temperature, checked cervical position and fluid, did ‘it’ every cycle at the correct time and in the best position, taken tablets by the dozen, exercised, tried to relax, done acupuncure and Chinese herbs for over three months, abstained from alcohol and soft cheese, given up coffee temporarily, had surgery to make sure nothing was wrong, been poked, prodded, discussed, advised and for what? Nothing. In three years we have not conceived once.

I’ve been thinking for a few months that it was time to stop. I can’t keep on living my life in four week slots of time. I had planned to continue the acupuncture and herbs for another two cycles, however with Eddie deploying there’s no point. So this is it.

There isn’t going to be a baby. I’m never going to be pregnant again.

Recently, I didn’t go to church because I couldn’t face seeing pregnant women there. At work recently I left a morning tea, where a co-worker had brought in her newborn baby, and cried in the ladies because I knew that it was never going to be me.

There isn’t going to be a baby, I’ll never be pregnant again.

He’s deploying

Eddie is deploying for 3 1/2 months, leaving in 12 days, the 2nd Sept. Not a lot of notice, so he’s going to be VERY busy the next two weeks.

The good side of it: by the time he gets back – in time for Christmas – we’ll be out of debt except for the mortgage and the margin lending account. Yay!

The money doesn’t make up for not having him here, but at least it’s something!