Challenge 13- Something ugly

Challenge 13 was to photograph the "not-so-nice" side of life.  The challenge was to photograph something ugly. 

I choose to photograph the bulk household waste.  Every year our local council offers a bulk household waste pick-up.  The pick-up starts in late May and runs for 6 weeks.  Now, the idea is that each suburb in the Port Stephens council has a set week in which to put out their waste.  A flyer in the mailbox notifies each suburb of their pick up week.  In concept, you'd put your waste out on Sunday and it will be picked up during the week.  In truth, no one follows the flyers that we have gotten.  Our neighborhood wasn't supposed to put the waste out until the 27th of June.  Some people have had theirs sitting out for weeks!  Now, the other problem is what people call waste.  There are so many table and chair sets outside.  Yes, one of the four chairs is broken.  Why not donate the other three and the table to the Salvation Army?  People also use this time to scavenge through the bulk waste. Ugh.  I am glad that this will all be done soon!

Challenge 12- family pet

Challenge 12 was to take a picture of a family pet.  Since we only have one pet in the country, I can only take a picture of Lacey.

Lacey enjoys a good curl-up on her bed for a nap.  After all, she's still a growing pup!

Challenge 11- Coffee Cup

I am really bad about this picture challenge!  I am sorry!  I will try to do better.

Challenge 11 is a picture of my coffee cup.

I didn't have coffee in my cup.  I was drinking hot tea with milk and sugar.  I like this picture because it shows the steam coming off my cup.

Life as we know it

It is Winter here.  The first of June ushered in a new season, which is cold and rainy.  Well, actually the month started pretty well with 6 or so really nice, (but cold) sunny days.  Of course, by cold, I mean about 50 degrees at the lowest. 
Jay and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on Thursday.  We went out of dinner at a very awesome place.  I wore a skirt.

 I bought this skirt in Noosa at the Eumundi Market.  I really love this skirt.  Considering that I am not a huge skirt wearer, that's saying a lot. 

This weekend is the June long weekend.  Don't understand what that means?  Neither did I for a while.  A long weekend is when there is a holiday on Monday, which makes a three day weekend.  The June long weekend is simply the weekend, followed by the Queen's Birthday. Of course, Monday is not actually the Queen's birthday.  It is simply the day that most of Australia celebrates her birthday.  Western Australia chooses to celebrate it on a different day. 
The tradition in Nelson Bay over the long weekend is the Country Music Festival.  It is also rain...and lots of it.  Everyone says that it rains every year on this weekend. 

We are feeling fairly pinned down by the rain and stayed indoors yesterday.  I have dog training this morning, rain or shine.  I am hoping for less rain and more just overcast and cloudy. 

Tom is coping pretty well with having his arm in a sling.  I feel like it is going to get harder and harder though as the weeks go by.  He has to keep it still, but I think that he not going to do well with it over the next 3 1/2 weeks. 

The rain has us trapped so we are reading.  Where's Wally are some favorite books for just passing the day away, searching for the impossibly hidden items and Wally. 

On our anniversary, I fed the kids something they don't usually get at home.  I heated some pre-made nuggets in the oven.  I found this package highly amusing though.  Recipes on the back of boxes typically have something to do with the product in the box.  Not this one though.  A box of chicken nuggets had a recipe for pumpkin.  Amusing.

Challenge 10- Secret Passion

So I am back in the saddle again after a bit of time off from the challenge.  Going to Noosa really broke my stride on a few things.  However, I'm back at it now. 
The next challenge is to photograph a secret passion.  I will admit that I don't have many things that I am passionate about.  Certainly my family, friends, and scrapbooking, but none of those would be considered secret.   Then I was talking with a friend about making bread by hand versus going to the bakery or even using a bread machine.  It dawned on me that I am a little bit passionate about making bread.  It's also something that I don't really talk about so perhaps making bread is a secret passion for me. 

This is partially kneeded bread dough.  I love everything about making bread.  The yeasty smell, the warm, hardy texture, the feel of kneeding the dough....everything.  Kneeding bread is very calming and soothing to me.  Doing dishes used to be calming and soothing, but then I had to do them everyday, multiple times a day.  Hopefully, making bread won't lose that same loveliness. 

In case you are wondering, I used a White Wheat recipe from the Joy of Cooking (their Whole Wheat Bread) and modify it by subsituting 1/4 cup of the water for juice of one large orange and the correct amount of Wallaby Bread Improver.  It comes out wonderful everytime.

A boy and his collarbone

So I am way behind on my picture challenge and blogging.  I will catch up.  I promise. 
However, I have something to share first.
Every Wednesday night, we drive over to the soccer fields for practice.  This week is the first week that both boys have practice on the same night.  I was very happy about this as it means only one evening at the fields instead of two. 
Joe's practice starts at 4:30 and Tom's starts at 5.  Each one runs for 1 hour.  Just before 5 o'clock, Tom was playing with his teammates.  Basically, they were warming up before the coach arrived to start practice.  Sam was playing with a friend and I was talking with a friend as well.  I hear crying and turn around to see Tom shuffling towards me with his left arm hanging very limp at his side.  'Oh, no, this can't be good' was my first thought.  His crying was one of pain and not just a little pain.  He had fallen somehow, but no one saw what happened.  I start looking at this shoulder, thinking that maybe he'd dislocated it.  I notice a large bump on his collarbone that shouldn't be there.  'Oh, he's broken his collarbone,' I say.  I show it to my friend and she agrees that it's not quite right.  I gather Tom and Sam and load them in the car.  I then drive over to the next field and gather Joe up from his practice.  I text Jay since I know that he is riding his motorcycle home from work at that moment and let him know what's going on. 
The verdict is just as I suspected and it's a broken collarbone.  Our local little hospital doesn't have x-ray facilities so we had to wait until the next morning to confirm the nature of the break.

Wednesday evening was also a bit of a run around as the doctor wanted us to give Tom over the counter pain medicine and we had none in the house.  All the local pharmacies close at 5:30 most days.  I called one friend and she had some.  I drove to her house only to discover that all of her stuff had expired 6 months earlier.  We then called another friend and then drove to her house to get some. 

Thankfully, the medicine did help.  Tom hasn't had too much pain.  Here he is about 2 1/2 hours after his fall. 
On Thursday we bought a real sling, got the x-rays and visited our family doctor.  Our doctor says that the arm will heal fine, but it will have to be in the sling for about 4 weeks.  The ER doctor had told us something completely different, but she hadn't seen the x-ray.  No soccer, jumping, running around or anything for the next 4 weeks either.  He's being a real trooper about it now, but that may change as the time moves on a little bit. 

My Noosa escape

Okay, first of all, I managed not to take a single picture.  The day that we went to a very picture worthy place, I didn't have my camera.  So, no pictures were taken on this trip...
Monday:  I drove to the airport first thing in the morning.  I had to be there 30 minutes prior to take off since I didn't have any checked bags.  I planned to be there 45 minutes early.  However, a few minutes before leaving the house, I check my email and Selena had sent me a message saying it was warm and t-shirts and 3/4 length pants were probably best.  Eek!  I had packed 3/4 length sleeve shirts and jeans.  I then was racing around a bit to swap shirts so that I wouldn't roast.  Between that and a few other things, I didn't get to the airport on time.  I got to the check in counter 26 minutes before my flight.  They had just called my flight to board.  However, JetStar said I was too late and wasn't going to be able to get on my flight.  That I had "missed" it.  Simply because I was 4 minutes late!!  Thankfully, there were 2 other people in line behind me that had the exact same problem.  They decided to bypass and check us all in.  If any of us would have had checked baggage, we wouldn't have gotten on.  So, I squeaked through after all.  Of course, there was no line at security and I went directly to my gate.  And there was a massive line!!  Somehow, I got in the middle of the line as most people still hadn't even lined up to board yet.  Now, I understand that JetStar has to make a policy and draw a line somewhere, but maybe they shouldn't do it at 30 minutes.  Yes, yes, I know...I should have just been earlier (and I won't ever cut it that close again).
The flight was short and uneventful.  To Brisbane, it is only about 70 minutes so we were there in no time.  I found my shuttle driver and off we went.  We pulled into Noosa Heads about 10 minutes ahead of schedule and Selena arrived at the same time. 
It was great to see her!  Selena is expecting baby number 3 at the end of July and looks great.  We grabbed a sandwich for lunch and sat on the wall at the beach.  We had a short little wonder around and then headed back to her house.  She has a nice 4 bedroom house in the same neighborhood that they lived in last time they were in Noosa.  Her house also includes a wonderful backyard area, complete with covered patio and pool. 
I got a call at 3:25 from Sam's preschool, wondering if I was going to pick him up!  The final pick-up time for school is 3:15 (and I am always there no later than 3:05).  I said that Jay was getting him and that I'd find him.  I called Jay's work to learn that he'd left at 3:10.  So I called the pre-school back and let them know he was on his way.  I then tried to call a few friends in order to have them grab the older two boys.  None of them responded, so I just called the office.  School lets out at 3:30 so there was no way that Jay was going to be there in time to grab them.  The office sent a note down and the boys waited with the bus riders.  No big deal and all the kids were picked up and finally home when I called them later. 
Tuesday, we took a drive up to Monteville.  We did a wonder around and morning tea.  Absolutely beautiful scenery and some wonderful hillsides fully covered in orangey yellow flowers.  Too bad I didn't have my camera. 
Wednesday, we headed to the Eumundi markets.  Eumundi is a sleepy little town that fills to the brim twice a week for the markets.  Wednesday is not quite as busy or awesome as Saturdays according to Selena, but it was still really neat to wonder through isles and isles of tents and stalls.  We scored a few really great things and it was an enjoyable day.  I topped off Wednesday by having some one-on-one time with the girls while Selena did a few catch-up chores and spent a little time with Dan (her hubby).  
Thursday was a easy day as Selena had a doctor's appointment in the morning.  We then had lunch and after school, I headed for home.  The trip home was very uneventful. 
I very much enjoyed my time away, but as usual I was pretty keen to get home.