where has the time gone???

wow.. I cant believe it is nearly a week since Christmas!!!  Where has the time gone????  Our holiday is nearly half way over... we have started to relax....if only this rain would go away!!!!

We spent last night out on a friends boat near Maclean Island.. it is so peaceful out there... The kids really enjoyed it.... the got to jump of the back of the boat and go swimming or hop in the little boat and go for a ride to the beach.  I really should have applied some more sunscreen to myself though..ouch!!!

Tomorrow, for New Years Eve, we are going to the same friends house for a party....it should be a great night! we are having a sleep over again. Trying to get a taxi here on NYE will be near impossible.  After last year I told her that we should just park the van on her front lawn... doesnt look like this holiday is going to be any different!

anyway, best go, my time on the wi-fi is quickly running out!
have a great new years eve everyone xxxxx

Merry Christmas!

Craig is arrving back here at the coast about lunch time today :) The girls are excited because he is bringing all of the presents with him!

Merry Christmas to my gorgeous friends!!!

hello!

This Gold Coast weather is glorious! We havent been to the beach today yet, the van park has an organised xmas craft morning for the kids, so the girls are participating! I am not allowed to go and see what they are doing it is going to be a suprise! I dont mind lol... enjoying some quiet time... just me and my laptop lol!
we are going shopping (again!) after the girls get back... Kirst seen an ad on the tv about supre having a sale in Southport, so it looks like that is where we are going!

We bought some tinsel and some Christmas lights yesterday and Amanda and I have decorated the van and annex...looks lovely at night time

only 2 more sleeps until Craig gets back.... and then it will be a real family holiday!

hugs
Donna xx

getting to know you!!

this was passed on to my by my lovely new friend Shaz!!!

1. Where is your mobile phone? beside teh bed in the van

2. Your hair? in a pony tail....I am on holidays.. no hairdryer in sight

3. Your mother? Nancy

4. Your father? Brian
5. Your fave food? Indian
6. Your dream last night? none!
7. Your fave drink? Wine!

8. Your dream/goal?  to stay happy and healthy
9. What room are you in? in the caravan
10. Your hobby? Scrapbooking!!!
11. Your fear?  loosing my husband and girls

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? in a bigger van!

13. Where you were last night? watching tv with my girls
14. Something that you aren't? sexy! lol

15. Muffins? = Blueberry!
16. Wish List Item?  new car

17. Where did you grow up? Wollongong, St George (QLD) and Dalby

18. Last thing you did?  nana nap!

19. What are you wearing? skirt and top

20. Your TV? right now a teeny tiny teac :(

21. Your Pets? Sandy (cocker spaniel)

22. Friends? i love them all
23. Your Life? lucky

24. Your Mood? Fine this morning

25. Missing Someone?  ssshhh...dont tell him, Craig!
26. Vehicle? mercedes 320
27. Something your not wearing? my glasses
28. Your fave store? myer!!
29. Your fave colour? red

30. Last time you laughed? with kids earlier
31. Last time you cried? last week

32. Your best friend? Craig and Kylie

33. One place that I go to over and over? the fridge

34. One person who emails regularly? lots of people!
35. Fave place to eat? i dont really care as long as i dont have to cook it lol!


I now pass the batton onto these lovely ladies...they are some of the new blogs that I visit


Corrine Harrison
Liz Weber
Lou White
Josie Dean

woo hoo..holidays time!

Well, the day has finally arrived! We are going to the coast for 4 weeks!  I wish it was tomorrow though, then all of the setting up would be done and it would be time to relax!

I would love to thank you all for your understanding and support I have received since my last post xxx for years i never told anyone about my depression, not even family members. It is amazing how many people  suffer from this dreadful condition :( 

I am seriously considering doing something about raising the awareness of depression and other mental illnesses after the new year... not sure how... but I will let my fingers do the walking so to speak! If you have any ideas please dont hesitate to contact me!!!

well, I had better get off this computer, I still have heaps to do here before I go. the house looks like a bomb has hit it and I havent packed my tote yet....mmmmmm.... I wonder if I can take my whole scraproom lol!

have a great day everyone  mwah!

something to share

hi everyone... I just wanted to share with you something about me....I have shared this on a forum today and was really quite suprised at that the amount of people there are in our scrapping community who are just like me.

I was recently reading a forum that had a thread that started like this...


Why is it as women we always seem to be fighting something? Whether it is society’s expectations of us, our own high expectations for ourselves, our weight, our body image, our self-esteem, our men, our children, mental illness? Why is it that depression (OMG … I said the word!!) and other mental illnesses are still such taboo subjects? Why when we (and I mean that collectively not individually) as a society can discuss all manners of illnesses and aches and pains is there still such a stigma attached to mental health?

I then proceeded to read this thread for the next hour and a half with tears flowing....


After seeing the amount of response from the forum readers I thought maybe we (me) needed to have a thread where we can let it all out and help each other get through those awful times when we need a friend to listen... Many stories were just like mine :(


I have been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety Disorder, I have an addictive personality and I also have borderline obsessive compulsive disorder.


I suffered my first breakdown in 2001. I won’t go into what led up to this.. You would be reading for months... I have a really great GP who has been there for me and is as great listener... he gave me heaps of information to read and put me on medication straight away. Within two weeks I was feeling so much better .I started seeing a psychologist for a while...she gave me lots of coping strategies .After a couple of months of feeling ok, I then went to the doctor and started to ween myself off the meds. I was feeling a million dollars... Things were ok for a long time....


When Amanda stared preschool things started going downhill again... a few things happened that I really don’t want to get into on here, but I started having panic attacks... they always happened after a pretty traumatic event... I would handle the stress at the time and then after it was all said and done I would wake in the middle of the night having a massive attack.... the first time I had one I thought I was having a heart attack.... I could see my chest rising and falling... I couldn’t even wake Craig to tell him what was happening... I made an appointment for the doctor first thing in the morning and he put me on an ECG machine... I then had another panic attack while the machine was hooked up... he could see it happening but the ECG was showing normal readings.... with my history it didn’t take him long to work out what was going on... he put me straight back on meds.


Over the course of the years I have stayed on! And was feeling great... invincible!


3 and half years ago I was offered a job in real estate doing property management. I studied for my real estate licence and was working 6 days a week.... I loved the job! My doctor more or less told me that the job wasn’t right for me. The bigger I got the rent roll the busier I got and the more stressed I got... I went to my boss and told him that I wasn’t coping at all with the work load and that I needed help...he told me that I would be fine.. silly me believed him...it all came to a head 2 yrs ago when I went on 3 weeks holiday... after a week Craig said to me “thank god you are back” it made me think about what I was doing to my family and myself.


When we got home, after much talking with Craig I had decided to resign... not that I had any resistance from my employers... they had uncovered lots of things that I hadn’t done while I was on holidays...now they believed me that the work load was too big for just one person.... i ended up having another breakdown from the stress and the guilt that i had let everyone down... I went to my doctor and he told me that there was no way that I could go back into the office again, and he wrote a certificate to finish work immediately. And pretty much told me that I would never work again.


I visited my doctor today for a check up. I don’t think that I have been to the doctor for years without being an absolute mess... I walked into today with my head held high and a huge smile on my face..... The look of relief on his face was comical... I am sure he looked at the appointments today and thought here we go again lol.


We discussed how Craig now thinks that I am too highly dosed, because nothing seems to faze me anymore....my doctor asked me what does he prefer??? Me screaming and crying or a happy wife... I said I didn’t care what he wanted, I can never remember feeling this happy and content with myself...


It has been a long hard road and after lots of med changes and doses I am finally there!

The scrapping community, through forums and blogs has helped me deal with the day to day ups and downs...and from the bottom of my heart I thank you xxx

Truck drivers wife again :(

That is right... Craig has gone away for a  few days in the truck again... he will be back from Melbourne on Friday.  Thank goodness we are going on holidays this weekend... we might just get to spend some time with him.... he is has been away quite alot in the last couple of months and it is only going to get worse he is going to be travelling alot more next year.

so it sounds like there will be now scrapping for me this week, but that seems to be happening alot lately! but don't worry... the tote is getting packed to take on holidays... I have a few scrappy days lined up....I cant wait!

We had a great time catching up with friends skiing last weekend.... the weather was sooo hot on Saturday that I kept going for a dip in the lagoon to cool off....

we had a lovely camp oven roast for dinner on Saturday night!

and you cant have a camp fire without kids and marshmallows!!

have a great day everyone!

beware lots of photos!!!

wow... it has been so long since I posted anything :(
I spend most of my time catching up on what everyone else has been doing....

we have had a big couple of weeks... Last Thursday night we went to school for the girls Christmas bash, it is a bbq and a concert that the kids put on for the parents, and a great opportunity to catch up with everyone that you wouldnt normally see.

On tuesday night Kirsten had her graduation ceremony... it is really sad to think that my baby girl has finished primary school.... Amanda thinks it is great that her sister wont be there looking over her shoulder all of the time :)

here are some photos:

Amanda dancing at the Christmas bash

Kirsten dancing at the Christmas Bash

Kirsten getting her Graduation Certificate and other awards

Kirst with some of her friends watiting for the presentations to start

Kirsten singing the first song

With her Graduation Certificate

The proud mum and dad (gosh, look how tall she has got!)