Skydiving

For the past four weeks I have been booked in to go skydiving. But each time I call them up they tell me that the weather is no good and we have to postpone it til the next weekend. It has been hard trying to plan our weekends around it, and I had been getting excited and then disappointed when it didn't happen.

This weekend the weather man was telling us it was going to be 23 and sunny. I was excited, and trying not to get my hopes up. I called him before we left and he said it was good to go and to call him an hour before we left! lol I told him that since it took us two hours to get there that we were going to be leaving straight away!

The skydiving centre is at Lilydale. Heading out east there was a sky full of cloud. Doubts were starting to creep in and we were already thinking of back up plans of heading to Healville Santuary. But we turned up on time and found out that they were a couple of hours behind schedule. We headed to a park for a nice picnic lunch.

I got some practice at skydiving by being very daring and going down the slide!

After lunch we headed back and I got my lesson on what I need to do when we jump. So much to remember!Left foot out first, then right, then drop down. Head back, arms crossed across chest, hips forward and legs back trying to hit the tandem guy in the butt!
Then when he taps me on the shoulder I hold my arms out and it is time to pull the cord!
We got geared up - some sexy parachute pants (which funnily enough matched my tshirt!) and the very important harness. The next step was to try and fit in that tiny plane! There were three jumpers, so six people squished in the back of the plane. There aren't any seats back there... basically I was sitting on my partner's lap and the guy in front of me was sitting on my feet!
The plane ride up took ages. I was sitting right at the door, so we had the best view. We could see the city, and the bay.

I was the first out of the plane, jumping at 6,000 feet. The others were jumping at 10,000. I wonder what it was like for them to see me jump first!

I got my feet out, then all of a sudden we were falling. I don't really remember much about that except we did a lot of tumbling and turning before we got face down. That was pretty scary, I thought maybe I didn't have my feet back enough or something. Turns out there were 8 twists in the parachute so we were twisting as it was untwisting!

Then we had the moment when the parachute opened. That was the worst bit. All of a sudden there is a huge jerk and you get pulled upwards. The harness felt like it was strangling me around the chest. Once that settled down it was actually quite relaxing. It felt like we were just flying like a bird.

All too soon we were making our way downwards and heading toward a little golf buggy which had Kel videoing me from.

I kept my legs up while we landed, and we had a nice skid down on our bums onto the grass with the parachute falling behind us.

It was awesome, but over so quickly. And it was well worth the wait to have that beautiful weather!

Fireworks

We kept up our tradition of going to see the fireworks on Saturday night. A couple of years ago we went, with Sam only a few months old and lying in a sling. Josh can still remember last year when Hayley came with us and she stayed the night. This year it was just us. We went to our usual spot - away from the crowds. I set up the tripod and managed to get a few good photos, even though I had forgotten the proper attachment. Basically I was holding the camera onto the tripod. Not ideal, but it did ok.
We were all wearing glow stick necklaces and bracelets and our hairy beanies that we got from Phillip Island. We got a few looks and comments!!!
And a tip - those glow sticks last for ages! We now have them hanging around the bedrooms and they are still glowing.

Snakes Alive

As part of the Djerriwarrah festival they had a snake handler. A little boy was holding a snake and he just handed it over to Josh. He didn't quite know how to hold it properly, but it was a pretty friendly snake. When I held it, it tried to warm up in my jacket.

Kel loved holding the snake, though Sam was not really impressed!

Melton Waves Fun Run

I entered the Melton Waves Fun Run on Saturday. It was a 7.5km event. We ran three laps around Hannah Watts park and the golf course, then the finish was down High Street.
I tried to pace myself at the start and even then my legs felt so heavy. I really had to push myself to keep going. There were some kids along the bike track who were giving high fives and cheering on the runners.

After the first lap Kel told me that I was the fifth female. That pushed me on and every time I passed another female I knew I was that much closer to getting a good result. I still stopped to get water each time I passed the water table, and the gap increased a little bit, but in the end I think it paid off, because I overtook two other girls so I was running in third place. I stuck to the number two girl closely, but didn't overtake her. We did a whole lap like that, then once we were on High Street and I could see the finish line and made a sprint and overtook her.

There was only one problem... that wasn't the finish line! I ran to the line and the marshalls told me to turn down the other side of the street until the finish line banner (which was hidden in the trees!). So I had another 100m sprint to the finish line, but I still managed to stay in front!
I was a bit delirious at the end, I thought I could almost pass out. But I was so excited that I came second! That is my best result so far!
My time was about 36:25.

Halloween

After Kel's Horror themed 30th birthday party, he has been collecting lots of horror / halloween stuff. He keeps talking about having another party... even bigger and better than the last one. He didn't quite get around to it this year, but I did come home to a different site when I got home from work on the 31st October.

There were huge cobwebs around the carport with gigantic, black, hairy spiders, complete with glowing red eyes. There was a scary looking black cat in my garden, and a raw, red hand sticking out of the door. I opened the front door and was greeted by a life size skeleton hanging in the door frame, then my two little ghosts jumped out at me from behind a black sheet!

This photo is very freaky, Sam wasn't too happy with the costume and I think he was shaking his head. Causes a great halloween photo effect though!

The boys had even carved out mini pumpkins with tea light candles in them, and we had some pumpkin soup for dinner.

We got a few trick or treaters this year... mostly young teens rather than kids. Some of the girls were funny, they were freaking out at all the decorations.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?

In toilet rolls

So far we have (from left to right) sunflowers, Kent pumpkin, spring onion and lettuce.

The hard part now is stopping the bugs from eating them.

The inaugral Caroline Springs fun run

On Sunday I entered a 10km fun run at Caroline Springs (to celebrate their 10 year anniversary - I can't believe it has been that long!).

I was envisioning a fun run with about 30 people in it... but it was actually really well run, and there were around 100 runners.

I hadn't run at all since the half marathon (unless you counted a couple of times I had to run for the train). But it was funny how the mind works... because I could tell myself "it's ONLY 10km!... when prior to June that was the furtherest I had ever run at all in my life!

It was a very hot and windy morning, and I was so tempted to stop at the 5km mark. I really had to push myself to keep going.

I finished with a personal best of 52:45 (my previous time was 55 min).

It was a really good day. They had Bob the Builder there. Sam was so excited... but he ended up bursting into tears when Bob got too close. In the end we did get a photo.

Colouring Comp King

The other weekend we headed down to the new Eynesbury estate. They were having a big launch day with lots of freebies. Free bbq lunch, jumping castle and showbags.

Josh entered a colouring competition. He spent ages on it. Sam had a go too. There was a pretty good chance he would win something... they had 8 prizes, and you had to be there to collect your prize.

So we waited around until the end, and heard them call out seven names. Josh was complaining that he didn't win, when we told him there was one more to come, and they called out his name! He was so excited. He got to run up the front and grab his prize... a matchbox car.

Melbourne Marathon

October 19 was a date that I had been counting down to on my calendar at work. It was the date that I became one of those crazy people who decide to run a half marathon (21.1km).

I was really doubtful that I would be able to do it, especially after hurting my leg. But I did! With a final time of 2 hours and 22 seconds.

It was the best feeling running onto the MCG!!!

Me and Carli (a runner who is crazier than me and manages to talk me into these things!) were sprinting, racing each other to the finish line. (she beat me by 2 seconds). We actually turned up late for the start. So there were only a couple of people running with us, and we couldn't see anybody else. It made the start easier - in that we didn't have to walk at the start, or jostle and dodge people... but it did feel really strange not having that big build up. In the end we caught up to everyone, and that was very satisfying.

When we got up to the 10km mark we were asked to move to the side and this motorbike with a camera came along, and there were two Ethiopians and a Kenyan who were doing the marathon. They were just sprinting along! So that might be my 2 seconds of fame (depending on whether they were zoomed in on the runners or not). And to think that they started half an hour after us!

Sam's 2nd Birthday

This year Sam had a Bob the Builder themed birthday party. Sam loves Bob and Wendy... and it is actually nice that he likes something that Josh wasn't really that into.

This is the cake... Sam thought it was fantastic, though he did run off with Wendy just before the party started!

Here is our traditional family birthday photo...

A photo of Sam opening one of his presents. He actually wasn't very interested in presents at all, until the end of the party, when he finally got the hang of it!

And this is a photo of Sam's new Firetruck bed (with Bob the Builder doona cover)

Tyrannosaurus Reg

The boys have another favourite book... called Tyrannosaurus Reg by Dan Crisp.
It is a book we got from the library, and ended up reading nearly every night for over two weeks.
The fact that it is about dinosaurs meant that it was likely to be a hit with Josh. The fact that the last page has noises and vibrations meant that it scared the crap out of Sam... he actually started crying it was that bad. But funnily enough, he wanted to read it again the next night.... and the night after that... and the night after that.

He got to the stage where he was waiting with every page turn to see if that was the noisy page. A couple of times I would try to trick him and turn to the last page halfway through the book.

(The book has something built into it, similar to those musical birthday cards. And something that makes it vibrate like a vibrating mobile phone ring tone.) Surprisingly for a library book, these things still worked.

This book has just the right amount of words for a bedtime book, and the kids have fun trying to find where Reg is hiding in each page.

This book was a winner for both the kids and the parents :)

Running

About three years ago I started running. I did the couch to 5k running program and entered a few 5km fun runs. Then I did a triathlon... and then nothing until I entered the Run Melbourne 10km fun run. I used to run 5km and wonder why on earth people would want to run for longer than half an hour. Then I got talked into trying the 10km run. I figured I would run half, walk for a bit and then run again. In the end I ran the whole way and did it in 55 minutes! I was so happy at the end, I couldn't believe that I had done it.

In 12 days time I am going to enter in the Melbourne Marathon and run the half marathon (21.1km). Some people (well probably most people) will think that I am crazy. I was going to only enter the 10km again... but I couldn't see a challenge in that (unless I just tried to beat my previous time).
I have joined a running group, and it has really challenged me to push myself out of my comfort zone. One morning I got up at 4:30am and we went for a 15km run. It took us an hour and a half. And then I went to work!!! I was so pumped when I got to work, telling everyone that I did it... it was the furthest I have ever run.

Then while we were on the Penguin Holiday, I did a run. I didn't want to fall behind the others in the running group, since I knew they were going to be doing a 17km run that day. I mapped it out in the melways and planned my route. I was going to run along the main road (since they had a really good bike track there) and run to the general store that is half way to San Remo and back.

Things started off well, and I even stopped to take a photo of the sun rising over the paddocks.

I came across a feral cat that looked like it was going to pounce on me. I saw the Amaze'n'Things house with the tap turned off. I tried to see koalas as I ran past the koala park. I kept running, and was almost wondering what would happen if that general store didn't exit anymore! Would I just keep running and find myself on the bridge to San Remo?

Finally, the general store was in sight! I turned around for the run home. It had seemed to take forever to get halfway! Then my foot started to cramp. I kept going. But it got worse. I didn't want to walk the whole way home, so eventually I stopped and tried to stretch it out. It worked for a while, but I did have to stop another couple of times before I got home.
I made it home, and it took almost exactly 2 hours. Later that day we drove to Churchill Island, and we measured the distance in the car... and I found out that I actually ran something like 19.4km!!!
Needless to say, I am feeling a bit more confident about the half marathon now!!!
http://www.melbournemarathon.com.au/

Edited to add: I've had a bit of an injury around my right knee the last week or so. This has pushed out my training plan, I hope I will be ok for the race.

Our Penglin Holiday

We have just come back from a lovely one week family holiday to Phillip Island. Surprisingly this was the first 'driving' holiday for our family. All our other trips have been to Magnetic Island. (Josh even got a bit confused and thought we were going to Aunty Janie's Island!).
The car was packed full of stuff and we set out only an hour later than expected! It was raining all day. We caught the ferry across to Sorento and drove around to Phillip Island. We finally found our little holiday house and had time to quickly unpack the car before we went to get something for dinner.

Sam and Josh shared a room and Sam spent his first night in a big bed. Over the course of the holiday he only fell out of bed about 5 times! Some nights we would go in there half an hour after we had put them to bed. Josh would be fast asleep and Sam would be playing away and talking to himself.

In the mornings, because the house was so open plan we could here everything as soon as the boys woke up. Josh would be chatting to Sam and then tell him to 'wait here, I need to do wees'. So he would go to the bathroom, but then Sam said 'me do wees'. Josh's 'Oh no!' was classic.
On the rainy days we went bowling, and played indoor mini golf. After a couple of days the weather really fined up. We had beautiful blue skies with not a cloud to be seen.

One of my favourite days was when me and Josh went for an adventure. We went for a walk along the beach, just chatting away, and playing silly games. We walked along the jetty and sat and watched the fish. Then we headed back and made up a game called Wave Rock. This involves throwing a rock into the waves and then waiting for the right time to race in and get the rock back before the waves got you. That was lots of fun, until the waves took our rock right into the deep water!

Sam started talking up a storm on our holiday, putting together lots of sentences and coming up with new words like peacock and kangaroo. I think his most common sentence was 'me come too please?' He never wanted to be left out of things.

We went to Rhyll fishing park and Kel caught two Rainbow Trout. We had them for lunch, and they were the nicest fish I have ever eaten! Sam is always asking for fish for dinner now! He also really loves his prawns!!! Pity they never have prawns on the kiddy menu!

We all went for a bike ride one fine, blue-sky day. One bike had the child seat for Sam, the other bike had the trailer bike for Josh. Its like a bike that is attached to the first bike. Josh can peddle and feel like he is riding (but actually all that peddling didn't help us get up the hill any easier!). We stopped at the beach for a picnic lunch, played on the sand and then continued our ride a bit more. I noticed a few funny looks and comments, and turned around to find Sam had fallen asleep!

(This is about as far as I have gotten in writing this up... and the photos are still to come... but if I don't post this now, I probably never will!)
Edited to add: here is a link to some photos I posted on Facebook... see how it goes:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43622&l=40b1d&id=521726443

Lactose intolerancce? Nope Gluten Intolerance? Nope

Ever since my birthday, Sam has had runny poos. Sometimes his nappies were really bad, and sometimes they seemed to get a bit better... but they were never 'normal'. After five days I took him to the doctor. He was able to give some good advice around gastro and some misconceptions. For instance, the latest research (which this doctor was involved with at the Royal Children's Hospital) shows that you do not need to restrict foods. It is a common misconception that you shouldn't have any dairy products if you have diahorea. The study found that it didn't make any difference. The main thing was to keep up the fluids to prevent dehydration. He said to come back if it continued more than ten days. So we returned the next week - but saw a different doctor. He said that it is common for the diahorea to continue for 3 weeks, and since Sam was not showing any other signs of illness, not to worry. He did order a stool sample just to rule out any bugs or lactose intolerance (a test for reducing sugars). Now that was fun!!! The results came back clear, and the doctor (a different one again) said that it was just taking a long time for Sam to get better, and it could take MONTHS!!!! So we continue changing these horrible nappies, once, twice, sometimes three times a day.

We finally got to see our normal doctor, and she suggested lactose intolerance. So we eliminated all lactose from his diet for a month. There was no change at all. Back to the doctor and now they suggest glutten intolerance, so a blood test and THREE stool samples and three weeks later and the results have come back negative. So we are back where we started. Next step is an appointment with a paedeatrician, which has been booked in for October. The referal letter says it all "...he is obviously a bright, happy and healthy child. ? any need for further investigation."

Toilet training

It has been a while since Sam has had a 'first'. Though we do get excited everytime he says another word for the first time. Last night (well it was actually 9th July - I am late posting this!) was a momentous occasion... his first wee on the toilet!!! It was probably just a fluke, but he watched Josh go to the toilet before their shower, so I thought I would try him on the toilet as well. About 5 seconds after sitting down, he did it!!! I was shocked and excited, and we had to run down and tell everyone and give him some lollies as a reward. Now we just need to stop him pooing in the bath and shower!

Since July Sam has been going to the toilet at least once a day. Usually just before the shower, but also first thing in the morning, and even if we are down the shops.

I love this self-toilet training!

A sunny winter day

There were ten in the bed...

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Send me a comment with a caption for this photo.

Are they here yet?

What happened to July?

All of a sudden we are well into August!
And what did we get up to in July?

We went to Werribee Zoo for a Trivia Trail day. The kids had a sheet of paper with photos of animals and when they spotted them they marked them off. At the end they got a prize each. Josh chose a crocodile cup, and Sam got a platypus cup.
The adults trivia was a bit trickier and had us counting the number of water fountains (Josh loved that! He has always had a strange facination for the water fountains at Melbourne Zoo). We also had to find the headline of an African newspaper in one of the huts (a strange co-incidence was it was actually from the day Josh was born!). It was a fun, but very cold day.

We also went to Sovereign Hill and got to frolick in the snow. The boys had a ball. I loved the tube slide. And as an added surprise, at certain times they had a 'snow fall' in the main street (actually made from soap suds). Josh was facinated with the big mining machines. We had a go at the bowling. And right on closing time we headed down to the creek to look for gold. I found the tiniest spek, and Kel found a bigger piece hidden in a rock.