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Friday, February 20, 2015

Bad Weather

Holy cow.........

How bad is the weather and how scary for all those up North being battered by cyclone Marcia......Luckily there have been no causalities directly from the cyclone, well not that we have heard anyway

Cyclone Marcia hit land as a category 5 - worst you can get with 280+km an hour winds.  It had downgraded to a category 4 by the time it got to Yeppoon which just happens to be the most beautiful place I have ever been to.  We have friends up there so have been a little worried about them.  They are all ok though.

We are lucky where we are as the cyclone will be nothing but a rain depression by the time it hits us but that is not for at least another 36 hours.  I really don't think that we need anymore rain though as we have flooding here on the coast already.  We have a fast flowing creek going through our property at the moment.  Nice to have a bit of a water aspect to look at though  hehehe.

Am going to a ladies luncheon tomorrow so hopefully I can drive there and not have to swim lol.  I have baked a beautiful cake thanks to one of the girls at work for the amazing recipe.  I will post a piccie later once I have decorated it.  It is a ginger chai spice cake or something like that.  It looks yummy, smells yummy and I'm not saying that I picked a bit of it or anything but it does taste a little yummy too :-) Can I just say that as healthy as it might sound - it isn't, the amount of butter and sugar is a disease waiting to happen.  I am not going to eat any of it anyway so all's good :-)

It looks as though we almost have a venue locked in for Emma's charity luncheon.  We are hopeful of raising much needed funds to aid in the research of childhood cancers and also funds to go towards a not for profit organisation that assists families of children with cancer.  I know that this is something Emma would have wanted us to do in her memory.  Emma loved nothing more than being there for other kids and helping them whenever she could.  She would often get out of her bed and trolley in tow go visit them and read stories or just play with them.

So much work to do to get it all happening though, it is a tad scary........ I am hoping that she is up there pulling some strings for us

Anyway I have chewed your ears off for long enough.  I hope this finds you all safe and (unlike us) dry...............

Leanne 







Monday, February 16, 2015

More catching up

I first need to start this post with a piccie of my pseudo grand baby...  My best friends daughter had a baby this year and her name is Emmerson.  She is just the cutest little poppet and is such a sweet little baby.  Spoilt rotten too may I add :-)

Unfortunately she does not live in the same state so we don't get to see her that often.



Work has been growing every month so much so that Stuart often spends his Saturdays at the office catching up on stuff.  We have an office here on the Coast, one in Toowoomba and have just opened up in Brisbane. We have employed a full time bookkeeper too so once she is up and going and knows the system my time will be free'd up a lot.  I still won't have that much free time on my hands though as we are holding our first charity luncheon this year in Emmas honour to raise funds for childhood cancer research so that will take up lots of my time. Cannot wait to tell you all about it as it is going to be a corporate luncheon with a twist.  Once the location and finer details are finalised then I can spill the beans.  It will be focused on everything Emma loved.

Jacob started University today eek, can still remember the day he was born... My how time flies.  I am hoping that he has an absolute ball and makes loads of new friends.  Can't wait to hear all about it this afternoon when I get home from work :-)

I went shopping yesterday- in a scrapbooking store.......... Bought a few bits and pieces then went home and constructed a page.  I was hoping that I would walk away feeling reinvigorated or with a new love of scrapping but alas it did nothing for me.  I  looked at the page and thought "what am I going to do with this now"  I still feel that I want to do something crafty but just don't know what.  I wouldn't mind getting into mixed media but cannot find any classes around the area.  I know Finnibair is coming back to Australia towards the end of the year so I will just have to wait for that I am guessing.

Anyway I cannot think of much else to chat about.  I am at work training the new accounts lady at the moment so I had better go as she will be finished her lunch any minute now.

Hope this finds everyone happy and healthy

Leanne :-)


Tuesday, February 10, 2015

I'm Back

Don't know for how long but I thought I would fire this old blog up again and see what happens.  If it is just here for me to offload stuff then so be it.

 I lead a pretty boring life these days.  Work everyday, train 4 days a week and then hang with my man the rest of the time.  I didn't realise that it had been so long since I had visited this page and wrote something worth looking at (not that any of it is really worth reading)  I will give you all a brief run down of what has been happening in the Life of Leanne and Clan.  Spent lots of time with this man.

New Years Eve

Shopping in Brissie

Christmas Day

GC600

Nephews 18th

Training Awards Dinner

At the footy

Heading to Adelaide for a few days


There was other stuff that happened throughout the year as well........


I got a new car - This is Benny, Benny da Benz :-)

Trained hard and have managed to lose 13 kilo - yah me

Took Jacob to see the boys from Myth Busters
AWESOME show 

Eeeeekkkkkk the boy got his P's

Went to the Ray White Ball with gorgeous friends

Drank lots of divine wine in Barossa Valley

Saw so many churches in Adelaide - loads and loads

drank more wine in the Barossa Valley hehehehe

celebrated yet another birthday - don't like this getting old business.

spent time with nanny Wilma

This crazy chick came to the GC600 with her mummy and daddy

GC600

yep

This boy graduated year 12 and attended the school formal

Certainly makes you feel old when this happens

Christmas day with the family

We treated our staff to a nice lunch which then continued on into the evening

The wonderful Dame Edna popped in on our Chrissy staff party

Enjoyed a weekend away with lovely friends

Our "Emma" Christmas tree


Looking good after a trim down

Remembering our beautiful little angel on what would have been her 15th Birthday

I baked this cake as this is what Emma would have baked had she been alive.  She always wanted a sponge cake with jam and cream for her special day xxxx

Miss the little goofball so much :-(



Well there you go - my year in a few photos.  Lets see if I can do better this year :-)

Tootles
Leanne

You're a Mum

Just read this on Facebook and really wanted to share it with you all.  If you are a mum you will get it :-)

A few weeks ago, one of my dearest friends lost her 21-month-old daughter forever when the sweet baby girl died unexpectedly and suddenly. My friend and I live on opposite sides of the country, so I took a trip to visit her for this past weekend. Admittedly, I was a nervous wreck about what I was going to say to her and her husband. How was I going to find the words to comfort them? How would I avoid saying the wrong things? I wanted to find perfect words, and, as I am a writer, words happen to be one of the few ways I truly know how to express myself.
Except I was at a complete loss over her loss. Having two healthy children at home, I felt I couldn't truly relate to her pain, so how on earth was I going to be able to comfort her during a situation that I have very little experience in? Armed with a pocket full of Bible verses and a slough of rehearsed things to say, I walked into her home and could never in a million years have foreseen the life-altering and powerful words that would be spoken between us during our time together. Except the words came from her, to me.
From her. To me.
That's right. My friend, who at this point is proving to be one of the strongest people I know, said something during her time of grief that will forever hold a spot in my heart. It was a phrase so simple, yet it has hit a chord deep inside of me. As she was describing the events leading up to the death of her daughter, she tried to express to me her complete heartbreak as she held her sweet child in the hospital during the minutes and hours after she died. Describing the time only as her worst nightmare, she said to me with tears rolling down her face, "You're a mom, you know."
You're a mom, you know.
This phrase took my breath away — as well as any composure that I had managed to keep together up until then. Because it was at that point, with that phrase, that I was able to start to understand the magnitude of her sorrow. Sure, I was completely heartbroken for her before, as death is difficult for anyone. But I'll admit that I didn't fully understand my role as her friend or as a fellow mom. See, all this time I had been looking in the wrong places for the perfect thing to say to her while I should have just looked at our simplest bond: motherhood. And while I have not experienced the pain that comes along with losing a child, I do understand the joy that she once experienced from holding her child. And to lose that? There are no words
Except maybe "I'm a mom, I know."
Losing a child is every mom's worst fear — no matter who you are or what kind of mom you choose to be. In the days since, I've been keeping this simple thought in mind when relating myself to other mommies. Sure, we all have our different ways of mothering and raising our families, but we do have one thing in common: our hearts are directly connected to our children. It makes the whole mommy wars thing seem, well, totally ridiculous.
You're a mom, you know.
So as I went with my own mom, who has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, to her radiation treatment, I glanced over at the young mother of a small boy in the waiting room. He was maybe 3 years old (though it's hard to tell because he was so tiny). He sported a colorful Superman cape and a bland hospital mask as he sat cradled in his mom's arms. She said something quietly to him. My heart stopped. This mom ached for that mom. And the tears started to fall from my eyes despite me not knowing her one bit. Despite me only sitting in the waiting room for maybe 30 seconds. Despite my own mom sitting next to me about to have her own radiation treatment. This is crazy, I thought. I don't even know this woman.
But what I do know is that I'm a mom.
And later I was getting dinner at a takeout restaurant, and one of the employees was on the phone in the restroom. She was struggling to find a babysitter for her child while she finished her late shift. She was frantic. She was upset. She was mad. My heart skipped another beat, and the tears welled up in my eyes once again.
I know, I'm a mom.
As I went back to my mom's house, heartbroken over my friend's loss, my mother was trying to comfort me. Asking if I was OK. Me! She was the one going through radiation, I should be comforting her. And then it dawned on me as to why she was so worried about how I was doing.
She knows, she's a mom.
And on the plane on the ride home there was a new mom standing with her infant son nearly the whole four-and-a-half-hour flight because if she attempted to sit down, he wailed. She looked exhausted and frustrated. She checked her watch frequently, but she also kept on task all while kissing on his little bald head.
I know, I'm a mom.
See, it's a thread that unites us all. Helicopter moms. Free-range moms. Breastfeeding moms. Formula-feeding moms. Rich moms. Poor moms. Moms of sick kids. Moms of healthy kids. Moms. The crazy, heart-stopping love that we feel for our children runs deep through each and every one of us as moms.
And this knowledge is painful at times. It's why every sappy commercial brings us to tears. It's why we can't watch the news. It's why we get in the car and cry after we drop our kids off to their first day of school. It's why food allergies are terrifying. It's why our hearts ache when we hear about miscarriage or fertility problems. It's why we are up at night worrying about our teens. It's why the thought of our children eventually leaving the nest makes us weep into our coffee. It's why the death of another mother's child is so utterly heartbreaking . . .
It's also why we should always provide a blanket of support to all fellow moms. Not only to those who are suffering through the unimaginable pain of losing a child, but also to those mamas going through plain ol' rough times . . . and even those moms who are just having one of those days. Hug her, and if you are struggling to find the right words, all you may really need to say is, "I know, I'm a mom."
But you probably already know this. After all, you're a mom.