Late to bed, early to rise ... urrgh!

I swear that Molly is slowly killing me.  Our girl is old, it's been said she has stages of dementia.  Who knew that dogs even got that.  I do see it in her eyes, sometimes she'll go out into the backyard and look at me and wonder why she went out there.  Then at other times she is like a young girl again, going for a run, trying to keep up with Lucky, then whew!  She looks at me winded and thinks, what did I do that for.

Last weekend Miss Brittany stopped in for a visit with her dog Samson.  Oh my word, Lucky and Samson I swear ran for one hour solid.  They didn't stop, there was butt sniffing and jumping and play fighting and Samson would chase Lucky, then Lucky would chase Samson.  Molly took one look at them, I'm sure she said "crazy kids" and came and sat by my side.

This is Samson, handsome boy he is, full of exuberance.  

A rare moment I got him to sit still and watch my hand with the treat, while I took a photograph one handed.  If that's not enough to build muscles with the big DSLR, nothing is!

This is what the afternoon looked like.  

I don't know which of them had more fun.

This was the moment Molly thought

"if I roll over and play dead they may leave me alone!!"

So anyway back to Molly.  She sleeps inside on a big comfy doggy mattress so is always warm and comfy in her senior years.  However she's taken to waking up in the early hours and starting to wander.  I hear her, she wanders up and down the passageway, up and down, back to bed lies down, then up she gets to go up and down the passage way again.  She will do this ad nauseum.  We keep the laundry light on which bathes out into the passage way so it's not completely dark for her.  But it's wearing me down, being that for a week running this occurred every morning at 3AM !!!!!

I got up one morning and when she was in the passageway I shut the bedroom door.  It didn't stop her, I could hear her wandering up and down then coming to the door and head butting it, then up and down and repeat.  So I got up and she just went to the back door to go out.  I don't like letting her out there when it's cold because silly girl she is she will never use a kennel, but she obviously wanted to go out.  I went back to bed but not before looking out the window and there she was just laying in the middle of the front yard on the grass.  

I just don't get it.

Same deal again this morning except it was 5am.

It's really wearing me down getting a completely broken sleep like this.  I don't know how mothers do it with newborns!

So shall we take bets, what time tomorrow?  Anyone?

And Lynne yes, I did finish the December book and had it printed and love love love it.  I will have to take a pic.

G'night.

We interrupt your scheduled programming ...

This past week has got a bit hectic.  I missed a couple of training sessions, eeeek!  I put in a few busy days at work.  Had a lovely run yesterday morning, it really felt good.  And culminated today in this ...

Excuse the blurry phone photo, I think the sight of my cake made my husband a bit giddy!!  Yes it is my birthday today and being that I was being taken out to a ritzy chi chi pooh pooh place for lunch, I had made a planned decision to eat, savour and enjoy.

So my meal this afternoon consisted of the most delicious vegetable tart ever! with sweet potato chips and a lovely salad with goats cheese and slivered almonds through it, so nice tasting the mellow creamy texture of the goats cheese and the crunch of the almonds amongst the greens of the salad.

I told Mike not to buy me a birthday cake this year.  Lets face it, it's just the two of us here and we would be eating cake all week otherwise.  I said that I was going to choose one of their delectable desserts and that would be my birthday cake that I would enjoy to the max, own it, and move on.

So I chose a scrumptious date and nut torte, which they warmed up and put berry coulis on the side, it was incredible.  But not before Mike (my gruff, he-man, no nonsense husband) dug into his top pocket and whipped out a candle he had brought with him and popped it on top, so I had something to blow out and make a wish.

Ahh, he is an old softie romantic after all, not that he'd ever admit it.

So there we have it, I have now officially entered into my last year of the 40's.  I have a plan (there's ALWAYS a plan people!!! stay with me on this one)  I have decided that this coming 12 months I am going to do 50 fabulous things before I turn 50.  That's roughly one "thing" a week.  I want to embrace life, celebrate it, celebrate me.  I want to know that I appreciate the little things as well as jump for joy for the big things.  It's the scrapbooker/story teller in me I guess.  And I will be documenting my 50 things.  So stay tuned.

And having eaten that AMAZING cake, I have a very big run planned tomorrow morning! ha.  As one of my friends mentioned this afternoon, now I've got to pay for it !!!!  

Hard of hearing

I swear since Mike has had his hearing checked a couple of months ago, his hearing overnight went from bad to worse!!  A combo of years of playing bagpipes, of using loud machinery, has definitely taken its toll.

Our lives have become a big game of Chinese whispers of late.  at times it is funny.  Take tonight for instance.  I was working on a presentation for our upcoming CWA meeting.  Our country of study this year is New Zealand so each month I present a different subject.

Me:  Hey honey, I'm going to do a paper on Tribal Tattoos.

Mike:  Where are you going to get the Trifle Cashews??

Aaaaarrrggggghhhh!!  Sometimes funny, and we will be in fits of laughter, most times frustrating to him.  I'm now constantly trying to manoeuvre at family events or meet ups with friends so that he is closest to the discussions.  I do feel for him.

So what to do about it?  He's too flipping vain to get a hearing aid, which then infuriates me.  Man!!! You need to hear what's going on.  And stop pretending you can't hear me doing the dishes, you can still see!!!

So Australia went to the polls on the weekend and we now have a change of Government.  Time will tell if the right decision has been made.

Mike had the election on telly Saturday night, woo hoo we live an exciting life.  This was the end result in the midst of the votes being counted ...

Yep, exciting times!!

Exhausted !

I have not stopped today, except right now, writing this blog post.  Actually I feel like I haven't stopped for the last few weeks, but that's another story.

Take today for instance, I was up and out the door just after 7.30am to head into Warrnambool for my 8.30 appointment at the hairdressers (one of my favourite things to do I might add).  Had to be back home by 11 to work at the CWA Cake Stall outside the electoral hall.  Of course I was running 10 mins late.  Ended up working at the stall until we sold out so was there for just over an hour.  Voted.  Back home to make toasted sandwiches for us for lunch.  Then made two date and nut loaves for family tomorrow.  Followed by a batch of hokey pokey cookies for Britt and Wes to take home with them.  Then made enough Rice Paper Rolls for our dinner tonight and in the fridge ready for dinner tomorrow.  It's been madness.

That's after I made more nut loaves yesterday and 72 chocolate chip cookies to bag up for the cake stall today.

Exhausted doesn't begin to describe.

I have had some exciting moments though.  Take last Sunday for instance, where I met up with my 12wbt friends and we went to a ... wait for it ... ready ... POLE DANCING CLASS !  Yes you read right.  Actually it was two classes, six of us did one and six of us did the other, then we swapped.  So I started with a Burlesque Dance Lesson, then followed by Pole Dancing.  I got my groove on.

It's actually harder than it looks, way harder, you need a good core and great upper body strength, it was a great workout.  And well the Burlesque dancing, I did my routine for Mike when I got home, I just didn't expect that he would almost keel over on the kitchen floor in hysterical laughter.  Well in MY mind I was totally hot to trot !!

The room looked like a barnyard full of chickens had crossed through it by the end of the lesson with all the feathers that came from our boas.  Hysterical !  

Lots of fun.

Oh and big news at the G House.  Mike has given up smoking, yet again.  This time however it's different.  There's a light in his eyes that I think he's determined.  I even took a photo and made a page when he proudly told me how long right down to the hour that he'd been off the smokes.  

Credits Designer Digitals.

So by tomorrow the world as we know it will change with a newly elected Prime Minister.  Let's hope that Australia has made the right decision, time will tell.