Happy Easter!

It's that time of year again, Happy Easter.  I hope you are spending it as you are wanting.  Whether that be with family, a chocolate fest, spending time reflecting, or whatever.   I've indulged in a couple of hot cross buns and a chocolate creme egg, and am feeling somewhat in control.  This time last year I would have been in a chocolate stupor so there has been a big mindset change there.

And because I'm on a health kick, I figure everyone else should be too, so I made an Easter Card this year and popped a caramello koala in it.  No hunking big chocolate bunnies from me this year.  I printed it out through Snapfish and it looked fabbo.

We went to the Dawn Service in town here this morning in the drizzly rain, but still it was nice, although a smaller gathering than usual.  We enjoyed the camaraderie with friends from town.  When we came back Mike decided to go back to bed, so I just pottered.  Mike didn't have a hope in getting back to sleep, as I set the smoke alarm off twice when I was toasting a hot cross bun!  Oh dear.

So you can be forgiven for thinking I've fallen off the face of the earth.  Not so, I've just been very time poor lately.  So you may ask what I've been doing the last few weeks that have been so important.  Well amongst everything day to day, I've been RUNNING!

I'm addicted.  They said it would happen and by joves it has.  And funny thing I was told that once I cracked the 5k mark it would grow quickly from there.  And it has.

Just looking at my Runkeeper my runs, all non-stop, running the entire way have gone like this, with smaller runs in between...

• 16th March :  5.4 km
• 19th March :  5.76 km
• 23rd March :  6.45 km

and are you ready for it ...

• 29th March, Good Friday : 7.81 km !!!

Although that last run I went to hit save on my Runkeeper (an app on my phone which tracks your run so you get to see your map and how you went) and I hit cancel instead.  Waaaah!  I was cursing myself and smart arsed (but well meaning husband) suggested I run it again just to get another map.  Oh how funny NOT!!

So I'll leave you with Molly and Lucky who want to wish you a Happy Easter (through their utter mortification).

Oh and as an encore, the other day Mike was feeling a bit poorly and lay down on the couch and promptly went to sleep.  This was the result.  Shhhhh don't tell!  

No one is safe in our house while there are bunny ears around!!

A huge milestone for me today

I ran 5 kilometres without stopping.  Took me 40 minutes.  But I did it.  Actually I ran 5.4 kilometres but we won't split hairs will we.  This was huge.  I was running back down our street and was whooping and fist pumping, I think there was even a little skip, then went I ran up the driveway I told the cat all about it (because Mike and the dogs were still asleep!!! and I had to tell someone!).  She did a flick of her head and jumped over the fence, so I don't actually think she was impressed.

But I was.  I am over the moon.

Mother's Day Classic coming up.  And I'm really excited because I'm doing the one in Geelong.  And mum wants to come and watch me run.  Now you know just how HUGE that is for me.  She wants to see me take off and cheer me back over the line.    Anyway there's two lengths, the 4km and the 8km.  I've been wondering whether I could push myself to do the 8km?  It's a stretch I know.  But every day I'm running just that little bit more.  Do I dare even try?  Do I do the 4km knowing I can now romp it in.  Or do I attempt the 8km and really extend myself past my comfort zone.  I'm still not registered, I'm going to leave it to the start of April to register and see which I could run.  

So this morning (when he finally got up) Mike went to the annual Steptoe Auction here in town.    Usually we would donate a stack of crap to be auctioned, and Mike tends to bring a heck of a lot more crap home.  I say that with the utmost respect mind you.  I went down there after it started, people were bidding on broken chairs, boxes of goodness knows what, a rusty old pogo stick, scratched records, are you getting the picture.  

I warned Mike ... no crap !  Although I must admit one year he did buy a student desk for $2 and it's still going strong.   By the time he got home I'd gone as I was going to the CWA exhibition.  I got home later on in the afternoon and look what was sitting on the kitchen bench.  A beautiful cup, saucer and plate set that I had been looking at.  All washed up pretty and sitting there for me.   Beautiful fine bone English china.

Definitely positively not crap, that's for sure.  :-)    He even stood in the rain and bid for it, outbidding a little old lady in the process.  Yeah!  That's the competitive spirit I know and love.  

Have had ourselves a huge few days

Mike's Uncle Frank and his new wife Debbie from Scotland have been visiting.  They've actually been out already for about 6 weeks or so, but came down to stay with us last Thursday and went home yesterday.  It has been so much fun, I haven't stopped laughing.  Couldn't understand a thing he was saying, but laughing nonetheless.  He sounded like Billy Connolly on speed!!!

All he wanted was to see a kangaroon in its own habitat and we gave him that by the bucketful.  Thursday early evening we went down to Tower Hill and saw kangaroos, emus and a few koalas added into the mix.  Frank was in his element.  It was really quite beautiful as the sun was setting and kangaroos jumping about everywhere.

And look at this little fellow.  I am not kidding, we heard a grunt high up in the tree and as we stood there watching, he slowly made his way down the trunk of the tree and sat looking at us at eye level.  It was magic.  Then he crawled right out of the tree and walked off up the track.  We kept saying it heard one too many of Frank's jokes so he was out of there!

And there were emus everywhere.  At times getting a little too close for comfort, they have quite the beak on them!  

Friday Mike took his uncle gold detecting up bush.  I think Frank thought you would wander along and see gold specks just littered across the ground.  If only it was that easy.  The poor man was absolutely exhausted by the time they got home with their four rusty nails they found!

Saturday we had a brilliant day, took them to our favourite place on earth.  The Grampians.  They were really having trouble getting their heads around the fact we would just jump in the car and drive for what seemed like hours.  It wasn't hours, it's only an hour up the road, but to them it seemed like it.

It was funny taking photos like this one.  I would be crouching down in the grass taking photos through fences and hear Frank back on the road yelling out to me "Aye, you don't have to look through the fence, it's just up there, take the photo lass."  Then when I showed him what was I getting he kind of nodded but still thought I was nuts.  But after that every time he took a photo he would with much circumstance crouch himself down, wiggle his butt (which he said I did!!) and snap a shot.  Had me in hysterics every time.

It's wonderful being able to forge new relationships with an Uncle that Mike had only met once or twice when he was a little boy.  It was absolutely terrific.  

Oh yes, what does one do with tourists to our country, have them stand in the middle of the road and take their photo!

We headed to Halls Gap and had a delicious picnic and look around, and then up to a couple of the nearby lookouts, poor Debbie and her vertigo.  But she was a trooper and kept up with us.  I absolutely love this part of the world.  We've often said we would live there in a heartbeat, but when you consider in about 5 years they've had 2 major bushfires and 2 floods, errr maybe we'll just visit.

Here is Boroka Lookout, looking back over the township of Halls Gap.

And what do you know, I was a twinnie with Uncle Frank, we had the same shorts on, almost.

The view from Reed lookout was spectacular.  Let's fact it every view was spectacular.

Frank was a hoot.  At one stage I set my camera up with the timer so it would take a photo of all of us.  Not to be outdone he said he was setting his camera up on a timer! ha!  I did not stop laughing all weekend.

The kids were just as enamoured with their new great Uncle Frank as we were.  We went in to the surf club for breakfast on Sunday morning and the kids (minus Wes who was umpiring) came in as well.  A bit of a contest as to who would sit next to Frank.  Afterwards I got some photos of the group outside.  Actually that span him out completely, the fact we would get in a car and drive 40 minutes for breakfast, apparently they don't do that in Scotland.  He soon worked out that out here in the country we have to drive a distance for everything!

And sadly today they started their journey back to Scotland, full of memories of a wonderful time in Australia.  We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know another branch of the family tree.

Oh but before I go, there was a bit of international rivalry over the weekend.  Years and years ago Mike's Uncle Jim and Aunty Gwen came out from Scotland (Frank's older brother).  Again, we took them up to the Grampians for a terrific day out and came across Jimmy's Creek.  Jim had to stop and get his photo taken next to the sign and apparently he has talked about it for a long time. 

We came across Jimmy's Creek yet again, and not to be outdone Frank grabbed the photo opportunity and asked me to put my photoshop skills to action.  

We nearly started an international incident when he sent the photo to his brother Jim, who apparently, according to his daughter, went off into a major sulk after he saw that they had renamed Jimmy's Creek to Frankie's Creek since his visit to Australia all those years ago.  If only he realised!  Oh dear.

I faced my fears on Friday and won !

Friday night our fantastic Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew (the girls that keep me sane whilst losing weight and getting fit) decided to face our fears.  Nine very nervous girls decided to go ... horse riding!!!!   You may scoff, pffffft, but each one of us were either scared of horses or had had a bad experience on a horse.

I haven't been horse riding in well over 30 years, and okay so, that was my first and last time, but it had left a lasting impression on me.  I remember way back then as a nervous teenager being told to try to mount and get off a few times as practice and one of those times the fly of my jeans somehow got caught on the saddle as I was trying to slide off.  Imagine if you will the world's biggest wedgie being given to me whilst hanging off the side of the saddle by nothing more than my trousers.  OMG, the horse was getting restless, I was flailing trying to get myself loose, it wasn't pretty.  I will say though with assistance I was able to dislodge and no one was harmed in the incident.  But I've been a tad wary, well okay lets just say downright scared, since then.

Roll on to last Friday, with a sense of bravado my hand went up, I was ready to face my fears.  We had booked for a twilight ride and were to meet at 6.30pm at the horse riding place in town.  Must admit from about lunchtime onwards my knees started shaking every time I thought of what lay ahead.

So we signed our lives away, you think I should have read the indemnity word for word??? and got kitted out in riding helmet and boots.  Funny thing about weight loss, it shouldn't be but it's all about the size right?  Well I've got a big head, there, I'll say it out loud.  I like to think it's because my hair is thick, but let's face it, there's a boof head on my shoulders.  When a number of the girls were fitted to wearing a size 59 helmet, I made sure my darn head would squeeze into a 59, cause I didn't want to be the only one wearing boof head size 60, because they had the sizes marked clear on the front of the helmet.

Right, so looking the part, they asked us of our experience on horses.   Errr next question!  And then set about assigning different horses to us.  Names like Shady, Cosmic, Maverick, Whiskey, who would I get?

Trying to look braver than I felt after kitting up.  My knees were definitely knocking!

I love that they had a step to help us get up on the horses.

Here's Kellie letting Maverick her horse know what's what and who's the boss.  

I can almost hear her say "now listen here!!"

Rach is just checking where the 'stop' button is, there's was one on there somewhere wasn't there??

Janelle I think was the most confident one of us, she looks quite the horsewoman there.

I was so glad to know that Kerrianne was as scared as I was!

And finally my horse's name was called.  Huey.  Don't you love it?

Beautiful gentle Huey.

With a sense of reckless abandon, I grabbed the camera from my pocket. 

And then Huey decided to move.  OMG!  

So here's an action shot of us moving from one side of the yard to the other! 

Daring aren't I?

Soon enough we were heading down towards the beach.

Sara's horse needed a bit of 12wbt intervention, it kept stopping for the munchies.

Actually they all did.  We were meant to show them who was boss and lead them away

from the lush grass, yeah right, as if that was going to happen.

This is not a great photo by any stretch of the imagination,

but it was at this exact moment I was thinking of Pattie.

How amazing the twilight was, the beautiful sunbeams bouncing around,

how utterly serene everything was.  This is going to sound corny

but it was like I was that close to heaven.  Yep I told you corny, but true.

It was truly magnificent.  Riding along the beach.  We had split into two groups, those who wanted to canter, and the rest of us (me included) that were happy with walking and the occasional trot.

The wind was blowing, the surf was crashing, we were riding on the water's edge and every now and then

the wave would come up around the horses legs, and the sun was setting.

It was so utterly incredible, and quite surreal, I had to keep pinching myself.

By now we were so much more confident and knew we could trust these beautiful creatures.

The world wasn't really on that much of an angle, either was I.  

I was just hanging on trying to snap and trying not to fall off  :-)

I absolutely love this photograph, I'm so proud of myself,

happy, and incredibly blessed to really be living.

I love this photo too.  How good are these horses standing in a line like that.

Okay so Huey had to line up twice because he decided to keep walking forward

the first time and I had to have help to get back into line!

What a terrific photo, we had mastered our fears!

Kellie took this photo and has made a by-line of it:

I overheard Carol say "Thanks tour leader, I will take it from here."

Huey decided it was time to lead the girls home!  Follow me!

And all too soon, well a couple of hours later, it was done.

We got back to the farm just as it was getting dark, funny how the 

horses picked up the pace as we got closer, they knew the end was nigh!!  

So what do you think, does this look like I have mastered my fear of horses?

A blurry photo, but look what a new friend I had made in the big boy.

Saying goodbye to Huey before he turned in for the night.

Mission accomplished!

What an experience to have with our local 12wbt girls.   So lucky I got together with this group, they are challenging me like no other - climbing mountains, running races, chasing waterfalls, and now riding horses!

I got home late and as I sat eating my dinner at the kitchen table Mike surprised the bejingos out of me and says out of the blue "you've never looked more beautiful than you do right now".  Well knock me over with a feather.  Doesn't say much for how I look other times, I was sitting there with a serious case of helmet hair, my face was flushed, I was jibbering to the dozen telling him about our evening and eating a plate of baked beans (oh how romantic!!).  But he went on to say that I looked alive and so happy and just full of exuberance.  Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder.  So glad he's mine.

We lost a friend this week

A friend to everyone in the digital scrapbooking community.  A wonderful woman full of charm, wit, humour, humility and a teacher and pioneer of this craft.  

The incomparable Pattie Knox.

When I was asked to join the creative team of Designer Digitals it was a dream come true.  I felt like I was backstage at a rock concert and still do. To be on a team with THE Pattie Knox amongst others.  Woah.   Stories are now surfacing as to just how far and wide Pattie's kindness and generosity went and just how many people she embraced on the way.  And for that, she will live on in our memories forever.

It's a hard thing to lose a family member, and to lose one so suddenly, there's a void that doesn't quite get filled.  My heartfelt sympathies are winging their way to the Knox family.

Christmas last year Pattie gifted me her two art journalling classes when she had read a forum post that I was wanting to get into art journalling this year.  So it was fitting that my very first art journalling piece should be a tribute to her for an album the team is putting together for the family.

Rest in peace my friend.

Here it is 6 days later...

... and another Fun Run under my belt !!!  :-)

Noorat to Terang fun run was on last night and there I was lined up yet again, two fun runs in six days!  I've got it bad!!  This was originally going to be my first fun run in my early grand plans and yet here I am lining up with a few already under my belt.

It was not boding well though, we had torrential rain in the afternoon (as in the little town I live in it rains as if someone turns a tap on and then can stop just as quick as it starts).  The heavens opened up, there was lightening, there was thunder.  It was still hot and humid and steamy.  We were basically just waiting for the locusts to arrive to round off what mother nature was going throwing at us Friday!!

However in a JFDI nature (work it out!!), off we headed off in the car and found that only about 15km up the road at the start of the race it was bone dry.  Crazy mother nature.   Crazy me too, I was jumping at the bit when I got out of the car!!  Love this photo that Mike took of me.  Who knew I could jump so high off the ground!!  It is actually probably now one of my favourite shots of me and embodies how I feel about life right now.

I quickly registered once there a bit miffed that I was in the VETERAN section!!  Hmmmph people of Terang, please have the wheelchairs ready at the end!!  I'm only 48 and yet a veteran!!  I then set about finding my friends in the crowd, we had a few 12wbt ladies from the Warrnambool & Surrounds crew running that evening.  And my good friend Nadine (who also happens to be my hairdresser) wanted to join in the fun with the plan of running step by step with me the whole way.  

I kept joking I had my entourage along for the evening.  My photographer/paparazzi (Mike) snapping away at me and my hair stylist (Nadine) to ensure I looked my best during the race, a little touch up here and there!!  bwah ha ha ha.  

Some of our beautiful 12wbt ladies before the race - Lynn, Janelle, Vanessa and me.

And the gorgeous Nadine, the most encouraging woman (and successful Tough Mudder I might add)

who I'm proud to call my friend.

Soon enough the walkers took off at 6.30pm and then at 6.45pm the runners lined up for the starting pistol.

And they were off and racing!!   

This sleepy little town hadn't seen such action in a long time!!

Mr. Paparazzi was kept busy as we ran on by...

True to her word, Nadine kept up the encouragement the whole way to Terang.  

I actually find it kind of cool we ran from one town to another.

Nadine ran pace to pace with me, it was actually a new experience 

running alongside someone and it actually was a lot of fun and made me push myself even more.

She even had some energy for some selfies!!   Yep, see we were really out in the sticks on this run!!

I very well may have been saying (through gritted teeth) "put that blasted camera away" at this stage

I'm not sure.  I know I was exhausted.

See the storm clouds behind me, that gave me the impetus to keep on running.

Once we hit the 80km post on the outskirts of the town I knew I could do it, it was such a great feeling.   Love love love the people of Terang.  As we ran past houses people were out on their porches or sitting in their front yards clapping encouragement, some had sprinklers and hoses set up so we could run through them.  I've never felt such relief and actually ran through every single one!!

Soon enough though we rounded the last corner in town and I could see the big FINISH line.  Mike was waiting for us, snapping like a mad thing (there will be some photos never to see the light of day though, I don't even recognise myself!!!!)  But I absolutely love this one.  Nadine looking as fresh as she did at the start of the race, and me looking ... well ... we'll just say sweatingly elated !! (some of that is from the hoses mind you)

Flushed with victory.   I ran the 5.92km in 43 minutes and 07 seconds.  

And so okay, I've shown you the good shots up there.  So one thing about having a dear husband fun run paparazzi is that you can't control what he sees in a split second.  Did I really do so many goofy faces (and trust me people, this is just the tip of the iceberg, he took about 150 shots on the night!!)   Some might call it goofy, but I'm going to call it exuberance!!!  Work with me on that will you!  :-)

The one time I turned tables on him before the race!!  My greatest supporter and encourager.  Encourager? Is that such a word?  Well it is now.  Thank you honey for all the waiting around and snapping like a mad man so that we could get pics of our 12wbt girls as well.

So what's next in the fun run calendar?  I think May is the next one for me, so there can be a lot of training, drills and keeping up the endurance over the next couple of months, and roll on May for the Mother's Day Classic.

I conquered the Elephant !!

Yahooooooo.  I did it.  And quite frankly right now this evening I'm walking around like a little old lady, but I feel ever so proud of myself.   Although the day did not start well, I had a heat rash on my left armpit and an unpopped blister on my toe to which I bandaided it "just in case".  I was breaking up before the race was even beginning.

We got across to Derrinallum around 8.30 and signed in.  This is the first fun run they have organised, the Market to Mount, so I feel pretty good that I'm at the inaugural event.  There were probably about 80 runners and walkers all up?  Maybe more, not sure.   And as you can see here this was first thing after signing in, 8.30 and it was pretty hot and only going to get hotter.  That sun was FIERCE!   And behind me the "elephant" just out of town that we were going to have to scale.

Here I am in a group of runners heading through town.    The run commenced at the Recreation Reserve on the east side of Derri, commencing with a lap of the oval, then out onto the highway, running through town and past the market, out of town and up to the mount and then to scale the mount any which way you could.

Didn't I say in the Surf T Surf photos in January that I was going to have to work on my goofy faces, oh Lordy Lord, here I am running past Mike who was snapping away like a mad man.

So I did the race in my run/jog/shuffle/sometimes walk a few steps/shuffle/jog/run style.  Thank heavens for the race organisers having plenty of water tables on the way because that sun was merciless.  Although I have combatted the flies for sure, I dabbed Nature's Botanical on my skin and it did the trick.  Works for horses right? tee hee.

So once I hit the road heading up to the car park at the mount I just knew it would be tough going, I could see the front runners already scaling up the steep incline at the front.  I did a bit of overtaking, then I was overtaken, vice versa as it went.  Once I left the car park and the incline really began I knew I was in for a rough trot.  It was STEEP!  The first part was scoria/gravelly type footing, and from here on in I walked.  I was in good company apparently, after the presentation I was talking to the second adult male place getter and asked him if he actually ran up the mount, and he said none of them did, it was way too steep.  That made me feel better in hindsight.

Years ago I used to do a walk up a big hill in Belmont when I lived in Geelong many years ago, Mount Pleasant Road.  Being the ex-brass band girl I was, I would have a stirring march playing in my head and that would keep me at pace getting up a hill.  I tried the same tactic.  Unfortunately my stirring march in my head was like a record on the wrong speed and it was getting slower and slower.  

Another water table (THANK GOODNESS!!) and still climbing and the track turned to cut hay kind of grass.  Every now and then I'd get a spurt on, but it would be short lived.  My legs were going wobbly at this stage and my calf muscles screaming in agony, but on I kept going.  It was magic looking up at one stage and seeing the finishers at the top.  On I went until I rounded the last knob and there was the finish line and I finished with a run.  I mean come on, I'd come all that way, I *had* to finish with a run, didn't I?  

This photo was kindly taken by Natalie from Colac, one of the ladies I met up at the top and she emailed it to me.   Oh and that wasn't sweat, well maybe some of it was, but it was mainly when I upended some of my drink bottle on myself to cool down.  

47 MINUTES and 33 SECONDS!!  Way to go me.  It was meant to be 5km, but Natalie said her Garmin watch said it was more like 5.7km.   

So after admiring the view and having a breather and a rest and a drink for a while, what goes up must come down and we started the trek down the mount.  There would be a shuttle bus to take us back into Derri.  I almost came down the quick way though when I slipped on the path and fell on my ass!! (padded as it may be).   I walked down with two new friends, Natalie from Colac and Shona from Creswick, both seasoned runners and very inspiring.  We nattered about running the whole way down.  

The shuttle bus had just not long headed back into town so we thought eh, lets walk it, it will be a good cool down for our legs.  Except we got back on the highway and had the crazy notion to run back into town.  So a huge thanks to the ladies for the encouragement in keeping me running.  It would have been soooooo easy to have waited for the shuttle bus.  I think Mike was surprised when we came running back into town, and he took our photograph.  

And that was it, the end of the line.  I was holding up the tree here, or maybe the tree was holding me up, not sure.  But all I know is that I was so darn proud of myself.  I remember grumbling to myself on the way up the mount that this was a first and last time, I'd never do this again, but by this stage, those little endorphins had kicked in and were fluttering about inside me and I was already planning to put this on the calendar for next year.  :-)

Oh and fun runs really tire a person out, don't they?  Look who I found asleep on the couch this afternoon when we got home.  Must have been all that standing around holding a camera that wore him out.    My friend Alison commented though "but well it is a big camera after all" !!

So a couple of things I'm REALLY proud of myself for today:

1.  I didn't know anyone else doing the race and still did it anyway.

2.  All up by not waiting for the shuttle and running back to town, it was a 10k (or thereabouts) day.

3.  I love pushing my body like this, even though I'm walking like a little old lady tonight, it's a great feeling.

Let's wait to see how my muscles feel in the morning! ha.