"In Dublin's Fair City...

...where the girls are so pretty" we landed to -7 degrees and snow yesterday morning. IT IS COLD!!! The flight was pain free as the girls were just awesome, we were so proud of the way they travelled. We all got a fair amount of sleep along the way!

Yesterday was spent unpacking, lots of cups of tea catching up with family and the girls playing in the back yard in the snow with their second cousins.

Dave headed off for a few pints with his dad in the early afternoon whilst the girls and I hung around home with Granny Mai and other family dropping in and out. One by one we all dropped off into a jet lag induced sleep. Ciara first at 2pm, followed by Zoe at 4.30, then me at 5pm then Dave followed at 8pm when he got home. So by 3am this morning it was party time...it is going to be a long day.

It is the first time that Dublin has seen snow this early in the winter for many years. I have already taken load sof pics, but for some reason I am unable to upload them at the moment, will try again later on in the day!

We are all so excited to be here and looking forward to lots of fun and laughter with the Irish lot!

One Step at a Time....

Finally we feel we are getting closer to our renovations starting. They feel like baby steps but all these things are important steps to a professional and safe build! The Geotech (dirt) engineer was here yesterday, we have our CC now and today the most obvious move that we are doing a renovation - our kitchen was removed!!! This one made us feel a little excited and a little nervous!! It feels like the first tangible step to anything actually happening! Thank goodness for ebay and that it will be recycled and not become landfill! Stay tuned for more updates....

They Say a Dog is a Man's Best Friend...

...but in this house Zeus is Zoe's best friend!!!

They're Back

We have an amazing tree right next to the entrance to the front courtyard of our house. It is a rare Japanese Gingko. It is stunning when it is in full bloom as it is now and also when in autumn and the leaves are changing colour to a beautuful gold. Admittedly it does cause us alot of grief when it sheds it's leaves and it would have been easier if it wasn't there when we were designing our renovation...Anyway, I digress...We have lived in our home for 3 1/2 years. The first year around this time we started to hear this very strange noise of a late afternoon and into the evening. Zoe was convinced it was monsters. Dave was away at the time and I had no idea what it was. After much Monster Away (lavender) spray was used, eventually we spotted this pair....and they have been back to visit every year since. They are a beautiful pair of Tawny Frogmouth Owls and they love our tree just as much as we do.

Show and Tell...

Ciára was very excited when her daycare teacher asked her if she would like to bring Zeus in for her news!

"Good morning everyone! This is my dog Zeus...". She went on totell them all about what he eats, where he sleeps, that Dr Harry paid us visit because he chases his tail...and the added bonus news was "and my mum has really pretty purple toes and I love those shoes because you can see them. Any questions?"

Weather Forecast...

Thanks to here I was able to see the forecast for when we land in Dublin next week...

Monday 29 Nov High: 3° Low: -1°Scattered Flurries

This morning I have been going through my wardrobe trying to work out what will help me cope with 3 degrees and scattered flurries - whatever they might be!!! Snow perhaps??? I own nothing of the thermal nature, and neither does the rest of my family!!! An excuse to go shopping straight off the plane perhaps??? Last year in London, I bought a fabulous winter overcoat - I may as well have left it there as it hasn't been worn once yet...however my guess is that I will be entirely sick of it by the time we get back to sunny Sydney!

Trust me, I am REALLy very excited about this holiday, Christmas, Zoe's 6th birthday and a family wedding, the whole trip is going to be filled with fun, love and laughter - I just don't do cold very well!!!!

I have a cross stitch, the Pies + Tarts BOM to take with me to keep crafty..and
I have ordered a "Learn to Crochet" book which I hope arrives in time. I have also signed up to the local gym for the 5 weeks we are there. Hopefully these things will keep me sane and warm!!!

I am looking forward to it all, really I am!

Finishing Touches

You will be sick of the sight of this cross stitch...but I love it and can't wait to have it framed and hanging in our home. I think it is a reminder of the ways in which we should be living our lives!

Anyway, I really didn't like the look of the charms when they came with the patterns. But they kept tormenting me everytime I looked at them - should I attach them or shouldn't I? I thought I had decided that I shouldn't!

Looking for something quick to do this morning to fulfil my creative urges I decided I should! And I am glad I did. They look really lovely.

What do you think?

850 pages...

...later and this morning I finished reading Ken Follett's latest book "Fall of Giants". I am always so disappointed when I finish one of Mr Follett's stories! I just want them to go on forever to see happens in the lives of the characters! This is the first book of a trilogy with the next one due out in 2012 then the 3rd due out in 2014. Oh No!!!

As a hard cover with 850 pages, it wasn't the most comfy book to curl up on the lounge with, but the fabulous story line made it all worth it.

Sadly I don't think I will achieve "50 books in 2010" now though. But with a 24 hour plane trip coming up plus 5 weeks in Dublin where the weather won't be condusive to spending much time outdoors - you never know what could be achieved!

From Ken Follett's website

Fall of Giants
Published worldwide on 28 September 2010, and debuted at #1 on The New York Times' hardcover fiction bestseller list!

Fall of Giants is a magnificent new historical epic. The first novel in the Century trilogy, it follows the fates of five interrelated families – American, German, Russian, English and Welsh – as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage.

Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams enters a man’s world in the Welsh mining pits…Gus Dewar, an American law student rejected in love, finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson’s White House…two orphaned Russian brothers, Grigori and Lev Peshkov, embark on radically different paths half a world apart when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription and revolution…Billy’s sister, Ethel, a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts, takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London….

These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as, in a saga of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St. Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.

As always with Ken, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. It is destined to be a new classic.

In future volumes of the Century trilogy, subsequent generations of the same families will travel through the great events of the rest of the twentieth century, changing themselves – and the century itself. With passion and the hand of a master, Ken brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again.

Better Homes and Gardens

Tonight my beautiful boy Zeus was in a segment on BHG. Sometime ago Dr Harry paid us a house call which you can read about here. We had a fabulous night tonight - beer, pizza and great friends to watch our poor boy on tele. Wow, he might have looked a little bit mad with that tail chasing, but what a magnificent looking boy I have!

Click here to see Zeus and I in action...

Where do the days go?

Time seems to be so short at the moment. I struggle to get through my to do list on a daily basis. Maybe my expectations are too high, maybe I am trying to achieve too much? I don't know but I am feeling more and more frustrated on a daily basis!

To ensure my sanity, I have snatched time here and there for reading my enormous 700 and something page book and I am loving it, I baked gingerbread with the big kid (albeit from a box but at this time my mantra seems to be "something is better than nothing") and I have also had some quiet moments to do some hand stitching on Jack's quilt. I was hoping to have it finished by the time we went away but with 24 days to go and knowing all I have to achieve in this time I just don't think it will happen!!!

With everything that is going on and stress being caused from outside my immediate family unit, my husband and my children have offered me the hope that I need at the moment. Their smiles, their cuddles and their love lift me up and they bring me so much joy and sunshine through the clouds. We are all creators of our own destiny, we design our lives through the desicions and the choices that we make. I wish that everyone could have this realisation and that they could see that life is really quite simple, it is ourselves that make it hard if we so choose!

Reno Update

We are ready to rock and roll....but with only 4 weeks until we go away and the builder saying that they they need a month to Demolish, excavate and build the rear yard retaining walls we have made the desicion to make them wait until we go away to do it!! That way, we don't have to worry about noise and dust for us...or the dog! And then when the builders come back in mid January to start the actual structure we will be over jet lag and ready to deal with it! Stay tuned for more updates....