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.

Date night

Had a date with my man tonight.  Out to the local pub for dinner for a great steak, mmmm, them to the local hall to see a one-woman show.  Quite terrific.  So nice seeing a show from Warrnambool do the rounds of the smaller satellite towns.  We took full advantage and made a night of it.

Yes yes. Loving the Instagram.  Here are some other recent offerings of the snippets of our lives...

Lucky loves licking the leftover froth from my skinny chai latte, funny boy!

Driving straight to the pot of gold.

Wet snowdrops in my very wet garden!

The prize at the end of my run during the week.

Someone loves his mum.

He man husband decided to carry me across the kitchen, he definitely broke a sweat!

He decided to PRUNE the cherry plum tree, this is what was left. Remind me never to give him scissors to cutting hair!!

This is really why I'm enjoying Instagram. A small snippet, just remembering our days. It's all memory keeping.

Oh dear, I am here!

What can I say, exercise has taken over my life!  Not really, just lots of things going on, so many projects, so little time kind of thing.

I do want to talk about last Saturday.   Our fabulous 12wbt crew here devised another rolling workout, got to love these.  They set a route/activity/timetable and you dip in and dip out wherever you are able.  This time it was the east's turn.

And the work out was called "CRATER CRAZINESS".

The area I live in is full of volcanos, let's just say we live on the wild side, they're dormant, not extinct.  Okay so they probably haven't gushed lava in tens of thousands of years, but they're dormant okay, they could blow their tops at any moment, right?  tee hee.

So the plan for Saturday was:

7.30am : at Camperdown for Mount Leura
9.00am : at Noorat for Mount Noorat
10.30am : at Terang for the Volcanic Park Crater
12.00noon : at Warrnambool to the Blue Hole
1.30pm : A well deserved rest

So I decided to do the first three legs being that they were in my neck of the woods.  With the torrential rain we've been having recently we were keeping an eye on the skies, but Saturday morning, although f-f-freezing, was clear.  Yay.

First stop :  Mount Leura.  Lot of old faces, but we got to meet new member Melissa which was great.  So we ran or walked up to the top of the Mount and then down and around the other side.  I decided to do it twice, cause that's the way I roll ;-)  Total 6.02km.    When I got down the second time, the ladies were already at the bottom, towels on the ground, music pumping through the bush, doing their SSS program.  The activity was contagious.

I set up the phone camera on a post and used the auto timer to take this pic, loved it !!!  

At the top of the Mount, one might say it was a bit blowy!!   Loving the 'do' huh??  

Great view from the top though, right across the south-west.

And here I am with my beautiful friend Casey,

We always seem to take selfies of each other when we are together!!

After about an hour and a quarter there at Camperdown we headed over to Noorat.  A couple of our friends dropped out (goodbye to Melissa and Kate) and Tania dropped in (yay!)

Mount Noorat is a heck of a lot bigger than it looks.  You may remember last year, or was it earlier this year, when I attempted to run up it, I was with Mike who came along to take landscape photographs and we got to a certain point and there was a big bull in the paddock and I was too frightened to go past it.  Well this time no bull, literally!  The mount is privately owned and yet they open it to walkers or runners alike.  Such wonderful people.  You actually climb over a wooden access point that gets you over the electric fence, and then off you go.   

Here are some of the photos I took as I was heading up the side of the mount. 

Gorgeous countryside!

Debbie decided to say thank you to the Rain Gods for holding off the rain for our morning.

Now bear in mind it was windy. 

No ... I'm not kidding ... IT . WAS . WINDY !   

It was a plant-your-feet-and-hope-the-hell-you-didn't-blow-away-windy!!!

Almost at the top.

We made it!!!

Hey, I was there too!!!  ;-)   

There was no way the phone was being put down for a pic,

it would have blown clear away to Terang.

Ha!  I had accidentally hit the video button when I was trying to take a photo.

Now you can see what the wind was like!!  

What a way to know you were alive.

So while a couple of the girls went back down the way we came up, the rest of us decided to keep going around the top of the crater.  I really didn't realise how big wide Noorat was from the road.  It was a great circuit (2.74 km)

I really like this pic, you can see Kazz and Tania there, and far off in front of them a little speck

Debbie who was running! 

This is the top of the crater which dips down into the centre there on the left.

Back down to the bottom and the card table and a well earned coffee from thermos was set up, amazing how good it was after all that energy spent and the chill in our bones.   Then onto Terang. 

And then there were three.  Only Debbie, Kazz and myself were here for that leg.  I didn't even know this walk existed, it is right in the centre of town and goes around a 4.5 km loop, through paddocks (thank you farmers for letting us through) where you open and close gates, even through the nursing home grounds (I'm sure the sight of us in our leggings set some old hearts a flutter!!) and back in a loop to where we started.  

What a beautiful morning!

And back to where we started.  Myself, Kazz and Debbie.

Then a well deserved coffee in the nearest cafe ... skinny latte please and make it fast!  And then Debbie continued on to see if anyone was going to be at the Blue Hole to join her.  That was where both Kazz and I made our exits.

Absolutely phenomenal morning.  I went home to have a nice hot shower which will rank up there as one of the 10 best showers I've had in my life.  I swear my blood crackled as the hot water hit me!  

Super Saturday Session ... done and dusted thank you Ms. Bridges.    Phenomenal effort and fantastic morning with energetic healthy inspiring women.  So what's next I hear you ask ... you did ask?  Hmmm, you'll just have to wait and find out.  There's something very VERY fun coming up in the next couple of weeks.  Hope we get the numbers to pull it off.  Let's just say there may be feathers involved and leave it at that.   :-)

I am pathetic in keeping up this blog

Yes yes I know, but I have been amazingly hugely busy and, well just no excuse is there.

The end of the round of 12wbt has come and I'm about to start another 12 week challenge.  The last round was a non-round.  I might have gone ahead in leaps and bounds in the fitness stakes, but I actually gained 2.5kg !!!!  So back on the straight and narrow.  I've given myself 2 more rounds to finish the job.  Wish me luck.

I went out for a lovely night on Saturday night with some of our beautiful 12wbt girls from our group.  That's meant a lot to me as well, meeting like minded active and healthy and positive friends who are all doing the same program.  It can be a lonely time when you are on this weight loss, health and fitness kick.  Ultimately it's up to you.  But it's so good knowing I have friends all facing the same dilemmas and trials.

I promise I was on the soda water all night.  I am a one drink wonder and perhaps have one drink a year!  If that.  But I was late and was waiting for my drink to arrive so I just picked up the champagne bottle for the photograph.  Don't ask!  I seem to always do silly things like that.

I'm still loving Instagram.   It's so easy to just grab out the iPhone and snap a photo.  And then there's all these wonderful filters and fun apps to play with to do things with the photos.  Makes me laugh.  When I'm out with my big girl camera I'm wanting my images to be as crystal clear as I can.  And yet now with Instagram, I'm distressing and grunging them on purpose!  Go figure.

Here's some of my recent fun pics to share.

My little man.

Miss Britt came for dinner. 

First daffy in the garden

Mike has started painting again!

Enough said, yes the three of them line up like that for a treat. 

Selfie with my girl.

A scene down the Yarra from my day in Melbourne.

Lounging around watching telly. 

My favourite after work run, yes I do run that distance. 

I do rock don't I ?? tee hee

This is what he does if we're not in the loungeroom.

He re-arranges the throw cushions and puts himself to sleep.

One might think Lucky could find a better position than the precarious one he's found

to lay on. 

Cold days means he's been wearing his coat a fair bit when outdoors.

Miss Tabby and fiance Aaron, snapped them quickly in the car as they left

after having dinner here.

I'm still working out a format because I love these little snippets of our lives and want to scrapbook them.  They tell a story of the fabric of our lives here.  It's fun.