Branded!

At least thats how I feel.. LOL Like a cow thats been branded with a red hot iron stick thing :)



And this is Travs:




And I have my 2nd one all planned, I took it in with me to check that it was do-able. So after this heals I will go and book it in. Although it may have to wait until after we get back from our trip.. I dont want to have a healing tattoo while we are overseas. So thanks SM :) I saved up all my recent cheques and it was enough to cover both of these and I have just enough spare to get my 2nd one!! woo hoo!

Apart from that, not much has been happening. At work on Friday I dozed off at lunch (we have comfy lounges and a TV in the lunchroom.. I always fall asleep!) And I woke up feeling so off. My throat and/or ear was sore.. I couldnt tell which one. ANyway I just got over a bout of the flu and I hate it when people come to work sick.. I take days off to get better, come back and everyone is coughing and spluttering all over me.

So I did nothing on Friday night, except scrap... wrapped up in a blanket, listening to the footy on Tv and scrapping away.

Saturday I woke up feeling sick.. all achey, sore ear/throat and one eye was really sore and itchy. Anyway we did grocery shopping, then came home and did some housework. At about 12:30pm I sat down on the lounge with some soup and the dogs. Onlsow curled up in my lap and went to sleep, I thought that looked like a good idea, curled up around him and fell asleep in 2 seconds. Travis had to come in and wake me up at 5:00pm!!! I was out like a light for 4.5 hours straight... Onlsow had gotten up, went outside, came ben an hour later and curled up with me again and I didnt even notice. I was feeling a bit better, took some cold and flu tablets, rugged up in a billion layers of clothes and went to the footy. Came home, watched The Departed and then went to sleep.

And I woke up on Sunday feeling perfectly fine!

So I cooked up a storm. 2 lots of stir fry vegies with U-don noodles for lunches at work, home made gnocchi and a very tasty sauce for dinner and a double batch of pumpkin scones. I was doing all three at once, and whacked the scones in, checked on them 15 minutes later.. and they were stone cold. The oven was on, it had been pre-heating for a good 20 minutes while I made the scones, and nothing. I could touch all the racks and they were barely warm. SO looks like the oven has carked it!! So I put the scones in the microwave and they are rock hard!! LOL They still taste delicious though.

well thats all from me.... catch ya later :)

Tagged and stuff

I joined Twitter! LOL Its so much fun :) I have spent all morning sending and reading updates hahaha!

And This is just a little something I whipped up last night.. credits in my gallery over to the left. Too lazy!



I bought a new exercise DVD! A hip-hop cardio workout:

ROTFL Its like a full on dance routine and so HARD! It will be heaps of fun when I can learn the steps.. there is a "learning the steps" section where she goes through each step slowly, and the actual workout is a proper dance. I was puffing and panting half way through the WARM UP! LOL Anyway I got it from Home Fitness Delivered, I received it within 2 days of ordering and including postage, it set me back a whopping $13.48! Worth every cent too :)

Anyway the weather has been nice and chilly, forecast today was 14C, but its raining and there is a very cold (and strong!) wind blowing :) Its GREAT! I love weather like this!!!

I was tagged by Kate a while back.. I am finally getting time to do it now! LOL

The rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

Ok 7 Random Facts:

1- I hate it when people {travis} sing the wrong words to songs. It drives me mental and Travis makes all the words up and sings on the top of his lungs. The more I correct him the worse he gets LOL

2- When I was 17 I got my first part-time job at the local bowling alley. I worked HALF a shift, didnt get paid and they never rang me back ROTFL I had to go collect all the empty plates from the alleys and I "accidentally" picked up all the ash trays and washed them, and then packed them away in the kitchen, thinking they were just normal saucers!!

3- I have no co-ordination.. :) well, I semi do in my legs and hips, it's just that my arms seem too long and skinny for my body and fly around uncontrollably.. much to Travis' amusement. He sneaks in when I'm going aerobics and laughs at my "gumpy arms".

4- I wish I had a pet goat! I went past houses with pet goats on my way to uni and would love some. I love goats in general :) Wonder how they would get on with the dogs?

5- I barely watch any TV and I cant stand reality shows. I sometimes watch the news, usually watch ACA to see which Councils they are bashing and hope they dont do an expose on any of the food shops in MY area! LOL. I flick through foxtel a lot and we usually end up watching the comedy channel or a movie. Oh and every single game of rugby league! hahaha

6- I used to hate seafood but I actually enjoy it now. I had grilled baby octopus the other day.. and mussels! mmmmm tasty :) 2 years ago I would have gagged at the thought of even looking at either of those! LOL

7- I love cooking!

And here is a tag I stole off Jodie

1. regular or diet soda: I dont drink that stuff... but if i had to choose I would go normal. Dont want brain tumors from the artificial sweetner LOL Give me water any day!
2. salt or pepper: Pepper
3. hot or cold weather: cold. Perferably with rain and wind
4. dogs or cats: Dog
5. dieting or exercise: Exercise.. I believe in eating healthy, diets are rubbish and just make you crave the things you cant have even more.
6. cooking or doing dishes: um this is hard...I do love cooking.. but I also enjoy washing up.. its like a mini bubble bath and kind of relaxing in winter!!
7. sleeping or shopping: Sleeping I guess? I need my sleep, I dont need to shop. LOL This is a stupid one!
8. Red Lobster or Outback Steakhouse: Dunno... but if it meas meat or seafood, I'd have to go with... a big juicy steak!!!
9. classical or hip hop music: Neither. Give me some good old-fashioned rock music any day!!
10. dancing or playing sports: Dancing
11. back rub or foot rub: oh definately the back rub. I hate people touching my feet, and I hate touching other peoples feet! LOL
12. fruits or vegetables: In Summer, definately fruits!! In winter its gotta be vegies :) I'm not really a fan of citrus fruits.
13. Grey's Anatomy or House: I have never watched an episode of either one. Next question...
14. coffee or tea: Lipton Vanilla Chai Tea. Very tasty :)
15. curling up with a good book or a night out on the town: Going out, having some drinks and having a bit of a dance :)
16. straight or curly hair: hmm.. straight.. but I like curly hair on other people, but I would be too lazy to make it look good if I had it!!
17. skirts or shorts: SKIRTS!
18. burgers/hot dogs or Chinese food: Bleh, NEITHER!!!! Give me a meat pie or sausage roll :)
19. vacationing in Switzerland or Mexico: Switzerland cos thats where we're going in a few months!
20. sports car or SUV: Sporty so I can whizz around and look cool :)

Anyway I'm tagging whoever wants to be tagged :) Pretty much everyone I can think of has already done these!

photos

Well, when im home and bored what do i do?? Annoy the dogs with the camera :)

:ONSLOW:





:BELLE:





Onslow is getting so possessive about "his" beanbag! I keep it in the spare room at night or if we aren't around to supervise, jut in case he chews a hole in it or something.

Anyway this morning he came up, hits me on the leg, and walks to the spare room door, comes back, hits me again and walks to the door. So i get up and he races to his bean bag and just stares at me.. as if to say "come on! get it out!" So as soon as I did he parked himself on it and hasn't moved.

Belle, meanwhile, loves to lay at the front door like a watch dog. And every time someone walks past the house with a dog, she races in whining, hits me on the leg and gets me to get up and check it out with her.

They are so funny.

Random Randomness and Stuff

wow, my last post was post 100. What an exciting entry for y 100th post LOL

So im off work for the next 2 days with a headcold. Nothing major just some sniffles but if the doctor offers me 2 days off work, well, who am I to argue with him? Besides, I have almost 300 hours of sick leave up my sleeve ;)

so anyway.. lets start with another vet update seeing as that seems to be the main event every weekend...

And lets start the vet update with a story about a cow that we encountered in the waiting room.

So.. There was Trav and I with Belle and Onslow, and another man with his Labrador in the waiting room, all 3 of us sitting together, and all 3 dogs playing together nicely.

In walks this lady with 2 very poofy poodles. You know, the weird looking, big poodles with the poofy hair looking all prissy and silly with fluffy tails and ridiculous hair do's? (I can tolerate the cute, little poodles, or big ones with natural hair... I HATE the big ones done up like big poofs!)

Anyway she also looked like a poodle, all prissy, and dressed to the nine's and left her sunnies on inside. She is waiting for the receptionist who is serving someone else. So she walks in, looks at us and the 3 dogs laying together, grabs her precious poodles close and scowls. The lab is very friendly and wanted to greet the poodles, so the guy stands up with it. Conversation goes like this:

Lady: Do you need to go down the hall or something?
Man: oh no thanks, It's just that this one {pointing to dog} just wants to say hello to your 2 dogs.
Lady: Oh {glaring at the Lab and pulling her poofs in closer}

And that was it.. end of conversation. The man then sits down, probably thinking the same thing I was thinking!

Finally the receptionist looks at her their conversation goes like this:

Receptionist: You can just take a seat, the vet wont be too long.
Lady: {surveying the room with distaste} Oh.. so I have to wait?
Receptionist: Yes, he won't be too long.
Lady: Well, how long??
Receptionist: um.. well I really can't say, but there are about 5 people in front of you.
Lady: {scowling and glaring} Tsk! Oh, well I'm going to wait outside then.
Receptionist: Yeah, no worries, I'll come out and get you.
And then the lady spins on her heels, pointy nose in the air and takes off.

What a cow!!!! When we left, we saw her still sitting in her car with them LOL. There is only one vet on Saturdays, and this week was Rob Zammit and regardless of when you make the appointment, you always need to wait cos EVERYONE comes in to see Rob!

So, anyway, Onslow is allowed outside during the day now so we will swap.. Belle can be cooped up inside and Onslow can have the yard. We were told it's for his "mental and physical benefit" LOL He is also starting his "rehab walks" which is a 10 minute, slow stroll every 2 days. Then next week its 15 minutes. And in 2 weeks time both of them will be allowed to stay outside together! woohoo for that :)

Onslow discovered the comfort of a beanbag yesterday:



I should have thought to close the door to the spare rooms... look at the lovely ironing board and printer LOL Oh well, nothing a bit of editting cant fix up! And just cause I think this is the cutest pic, here's one more :)



LOL I realised the other day, if these were real kids, Belle would have such a complex.. I have way more photos of Onslow than I do of her! But then again, if she wasn't so ADD and was able to sit still there would be more photos of her. Most of the indoor portrait ones are blurry cos she won't keep still, and the ones outside, well she moves so fast and so often its usually half of her head, or her bum :)

I did do a layout of Belle yesterday though:



I used Sweet Sugar Pop - A new 2 Scoops by Lauren Grier and Fee Jardine at the Sweet Shoppe. Paint is from Lauren's Full of Sweetness kit, also at the sweet shoppe.

So.. what else.. we went to dinner on saturday night for the in-law's 35th weddig anniversary. Travis' sister stole their wedding photos, and I worked some magic:


(papers by meredith Fenwick, ribbon by Faer Oak, chalked overlay by Lauren Bavin, bling alpha by Shannon Lee)

and I also blew up a colour portrait and printed it out at 8x10 and framed it as well. The layouts looked great in their frames side-by-side.

Ok well Im actually quite starving and pretty tired.. so I might go munch on a banana and have a nap :)

woo hoo.. FRIDAY!!!

Oh I love fridays. And this week has just gone soooo quick :) Unfortunatley the weekends seem to go even quicker and before I know it, it's Monday again!

Anyway check it out.. Belle and Onslow have their own DOG space accounts!!! ROTFL

Go look at them:
BELLE
ONSLOW

They are getting a nice list of doggie friends already :)

So what else... well, I have a cold. I've dosed up on cold and flu tablets so I'm feeling great :D For now.

Its been a big week work-wise! Tuesday I had to inspect a morgue, and wednesday I had to inspect a LEGAL brothel! ROTFL talk about 2 extremes!! ANd everyone seems to be in a complaining mood.. about EVERYTHING so most of my time this week has been checking out noisy neighbours, people dumping rubbish, overflowing sewers... ugh.

I forced a layout last night... I started using this kit on saturday, canned the layout (it was of Onslow and he doesnt suit these colours LOL) and then started again on Sunday... got stuck, left it and *finally* finished it last night :)



Kit - Pomegranate Margarita by Lauren Grier and Joana Carvalho. Get it at the Sweet Shoppe! Page fold - Kara Fredrick, Alpha - Michelle Coleman

hahaha I remember that cake took us forever to make, ages to decorate and a long time to light all the candles!!! But he was a hit! and so tasty :)

Not much lined up for the weekend... Another vet visit for Onslow to get the last of his injections tomorrow, going with Travis' parents out for dinner on Saturday night for their 35th wedding anniversary, going to the football on Sunday to watch Penrith take on the Tigers. And hopefully win. Im sick of loosing games at home... not just loosing, but playing bad, making heaps of mistakes and just handing the game to the opposition.

well its getting nice and cold and crisp in the mornings!!! The days are still sunny and warm.. I want those nice, gloomy, dark wintery days to set in :) I love Winter!!! I love being all rugged up in my thick jackets, boots, scarf and hat :) Maybe I need to live somewhere with snow... Maybe New Zealand. In FOx Glacier and I can get a job taking people for treks up there. Or Picton. That was really pretty. Nice diving there too, I could become a scuba diving instructor or guide. ahhh to dream!!!!!

Bits and Pieces

:holiday stuff:

well in almost 4 months Travis and I will be heading to Europe. I can NOT wait. To start, 2 nights in Bangkok, then first stop Germany, namely Munich for Oktoberfest!!! Then moving on to Berlin, Cologne, Brussells, Paris, Lyon, Another french town I have forgotten, then moving on to Switzerland and heading back to Munich before flying home. We have booked accomodation for Berlin, Cologne, Brussels and Paris already so we're all fairly organised.

We will be spending our third wedding anniversary in Munich at the end of the trip, so we might need to splurge and get something fancy and upmarket!!


:onslow update:

Well its been about 3 weeks since his surgery and he is obviously feeling heaps better. He has figured out how to push through any kind of barricade we put up and likes to run around the place. I think he's finally starting to go crazy after spending 4 weeks cooped up inside the house all day and night, except for about 10 minutes worth of toilet breaks a day. And the worst part.. we still have FIVE weeks of this to go through!! Because he has such bad hips, the vet wants us to really wrap him in cotton wool for 8 weeks so the knee can heal as best it can. But she was very happy with how his knee joint is coming along, and said its healing really well.

On another good-news note, he has lost 7 kilos and is down to 50.5kg now!!! his first goal weight was 52, now we have to get him in the mid 40's. The skinnier he is the better for all his dodgy joints.


:work stuff:

I had to do a presentation at a private school last week about the role of Health Inspectors.. and I was Podcast-ed!! LOL I found it hilarious. I was also informed that each student has their own laptops issued by the school, wireless internet and all other kinds of spify things. wow... considering at my high school we barely had enough text books for one-between-two, I was just in awe! But the presenatation went well, the kids were all very well behaved. I included some of the worst pics I have of dirty food shops, including one of a big rat peering out from a hole in someone's store room. Im proud of that shot.. I "hid" crouched down silently for about 10 minutes just waiting for him to appear cos I knew he was there... and I got a pic of his little face popping out of the hole :)

I also had my first case go to the land and environment court on friday! I received a complaint way back in April 2005. After nearly $2,000 in fines and several orders being served there was still no action being taken, so we took 'em to court :) That was a bit exciting for me!


:scrapping stuff:

Just a reminder to head over to Pickleberry pop and pick up some of Deb Fishers goodies. For those who havent heard, she tragically lost her husband, Ray, in a tractor accident. She lives in rural Vic (or is it NSW?) with 7 kids, 6 of whom she homeschools. For the entire month of May every cent that people spend on Deb's products will go to her beautiful family.. so far there is over $4,000 raised!!!

I've been too busy to scrap lately and I really havent missed it. If I have a spare few hours I have been veging on the lounge or playing with the dogs or just hanging around annoying Travis with random stories and observations. I did have to pull my finger out on Saturday night and get some stuff scrapped for my CT committments. I also have some stuff to do for my in-laws by the end of the week.. but they are just going to be super simple.. a few photos on a pretty background with some fancy brush work or frames or something. No biggie.

Here are some layouts of our Italy trip last year.. still got about 800 photos to scrap! LOL Better get that sorted before we take another billion photos in September!!



I was intending on manually editting these photos to make the colours POP but really couldnt be bothered LOL. Maybe I will before I print them...but then again maybe not! Travis hates when I make them B&W or alter the levels / curves and get the "artistic" effects.. but I find them boring just left normal LOL


:healthy stuff:

My new eating and exercise habits seem to be paying off, I have lost a few centimeters from my waist, hips and thighs, and in the process I have lost nearly 2 kg! Considering I only had about 4 kilos that I wanted to loose (6 that I HOPE to loose) im actually quite amazed that its only taken 5 weeks to achieve half of my first goal! Im sure the next 2 - 4 kilos will take forever though!

I eat breakfast when I get in to work, boring all bran topped with a banana , then for morning tea a low fat muffin or for this week - a slice of low fat sticky date cake made from scratch by me and its so yum!!! For lunch I have vegetable stirfry with Hokkien noodles or pasta or salad with tuna and beans, then some fruit to see me through the afternoon. For dinner I generally just do some vegetables with beans (chick peas.. I cant get enough of them!) or some couscous, or some brown rice... something easy! Oh and lots of water. I try to drink between 1.5 - 2lt of water a day.

On saturday I made gnocci from scratch and it was so delicious! (for two people - 500g of potato, boiled, mashed and cooled mixed with 1 cup of plain flour.. kneed into a dough, roll into a thin sausage, cut in to 2cm strips and roll with a fork. Boil for only a couple of minutes and its done!)

I have been exercising every day (mostly). During the week I mix it up between high impact aerobics, kick boxing or a 30 skip in the back yard (I need music pumping for this.. it's a killer!), and on the weekends Trav and I go for a couple of nice, long bike rides. The other week we did 30kms in only 90 minutes. yay for us! I really enjoy my kickboxing and aerobics.. I come home from work and get stuck into it straight away and it gets rid of any tension or stress or annoyances from work and the traffic on the way home LOL

:wrapping it up:

Well, this has become a bit of a novel hasn't it?! Enjoy your week, take it easy and catch ya later!

so Roomy!

hahha so much room he just did not know what to do with himself... kept moving about and changing positions. And as you can see, he looks very VERY pleased with the new car!

The vet we go to is next to a sheepdog rescue place. I love peering over the fence.. well, its sad that they are there, but they are so cute!!!!! Check this one out:



LOL How adorable is that face?!

Anyway Onslow is recovering well..a little *too* well for my liking. He has been full of beans and scooting all over the place if you take your eyes off him for just a minute. Its good that he is feeling better, but so much harder for us to keep him confined!! All he needs to do is run and land on his leg a bit awkward and snap goes the new ligament and we have to start all over again!!! For the record, I could have bought myself a new Canon DSLR with the money we spent getting him repaired.. LOL I certainly don't want to go through that again!!!

Well my exercise and good eating regime is going well. Not that I ate rubbish food anyway, but i'm proud of the small things like only having ONE sausage instead of 2, thinking twice before having a huge mug of full cream milk, and keeping my purse empty so im not tempted by the vending machine at work! LOL

Yesterday we drove our bikes to the rowing lake and we did SIX laps which equals a bit over 30km in only an hour and a half :) My legs are pretty sore today, but I pushed on and made sure I did my aerobics tonight. Thankfully tomorrow is a rest night as our French lessons are on Tuesdays this term :)

Anyway thats it from me... the poor neglected dogs are wanting attention! :)

Rest and Recuperation

Are the order of the next 4 weeks. The operation went really well, he got home this afternoon and after wandering around from room to room every 5 minutes he has just settled on his mat in the dining room. Belle was so happy to see him and gave him lots of kisses, checked out his bandage and even licked his shaved leg better :)
Belle left half of her bone in the sunroom this morning - It started raining and she got scared of the noise so ditched it to come in - and when Onslow came home, he ran to it and went to town finishing it off. By the way he was devouring it, anyone would think he hadn't been fed for 3 weeks!!




So he has to rest, stay inside and no running around.. and no walks for a while either :) We are going back on Tuesday to get the bandages off, and then every weekend for the next 4 weeks he has to get Cartrophin injections to help with his arthritis. He already has it in his hips, and as with any joint injury / repair he will develop it in knee as well. So the injections will help ease that pain and help the joint anyway.

The timing of getting the Rav4 couldnt have been better!! With his leg completely bandaged, all he could do was stretch out, and no way would he have been able to do that in the sedan. He was a bit funny at first.... scared and standing up and then falling over. Eventually he realised if he layed down its actually nice and comfy! Belle was the same last night. Although she wasnt injured and was standing up and running in cirlces whilst trying not to fall over! hahhaa Poor thing. There is sooo much room in the back for the 2 of them to lay down comfortably without being all on top of each other so its great! I should have taken pics of each of them in the back of the car. Not to worry, I can grab some next time :)

mm well I just made a yummy vegetable soup with some sausages in it for good measure. Should be just about ready... good cos im STARVING!!!! :)

Cuts, cars and cakes!

Well Onslow is probably knocked out right about now.. probably getting sliced open! We are just fixing his knee at this point and seeing how he goes. As he was not limping prior to doing his knee we saw no reason to operate on the hips. The vet was happy to do whatever we decided... hips, OR knee, OR get a 2nd opinion. I couldnt bear the thought of him hobbling on his ruptured knee any longer than necessary. I figure we can get that fixed and then look into the hip issue a bit more after he has recovered.

{Everything from Crazy Love - Dani Mogstad}

And today my new car was delivered to work!! woo hoo!! :) It is a lot bigger than I thought and so roomy inside.. full of all kinds of fun nooks and crannys to poke around in :) Seeing as Onslow has to stay overnight at the vet, we are going to bundle Belle in the back and take her out for a spin tonight. Maybe go to Windsor and have some grilled fish on the bank of the river or something.

I have been all into cooking lately! I found Calorie King which is a great Aussie weight loss / nutrtional site. I put in all my food into the calorie tracker to see how much fat / calories / fibre etc i was getting each day. I love things like this! Anyway I relaised I have a lot of white carbs and little fibre and protein in my diet, and as weird as it seems I am not eating enough fats or enough calories! So i have gotten all into beans and checkpeas and lentils and low GI stuff and things with "good fats" like avocados and nuts and things. And I am feeling soo much better for it. Much more energy to exercise with each day and already I have lost about 700g in 2 weeks. Ok that doesnt sound like much, but i only have 4kg to loose and I have been trying for 6 months and it hasnt been budging!

Anyway they also have a great recipie section! I made this Sticky Date cake for Travs birthday last week and it went down a treat! Actually pretty tasty and delicious warmed up with a smidge of butter. I made it exactly to the recipie (rare for me! LOL i always like to add my own 'touch' to things)

I also found a tasty-sounding Banana, Apricot and Date muffin recipie but didnt like the fact that it contained 1/2 cup of oil!! Nor did I have low fat vanilla yogurt on hand, or rolled oats, and I didnt like the apricots either LOL :)

SO here is my variation. When made like this, each muffin only has 164 calories; 4.4g of fat; and 1.8g of fibre!

1 cup Self-Raising flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup Ground Hazel Meal (Its been sitting in the cupboard for a year so I thought I better finish it off!! This was the rolled oats substitute)
1 3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
2 tablespoon Honey
1 egg
1 cup Skim Milk (full cream milk takes the fat content up to about 5g/muffin)
2 medium bananas - Mashed
A handful of pitted dates - chopped

I chucked everything in the bowl all at once and mixed it up. Whacked it in the oven at about 180 degrees for about 15 minutes and thats it. Deeeeelicious!!!!

While I was baking and calorie counting, I whipped up a batch of home made biscuits from my Donna Hay book to take for morning tea at work. I loooove Donna Hay recipies. Anyway I had no real butter so I had to use my reduced fat margarine... and when I entered all the ingredients into calorie king, it only have 1g of fat! LOL I admit the biscuits werent very big, but I didnt feel guilty having one with my morning cuppa :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Diagnosis...

is, in a word, BAD!
It turns out Onslow DOES have a torn cruciate ligament in his knee, meaning the knee joint is "unstable" and which is why he hasn't been able to put any weight on it.

That would have been a super easy fix, except for one other thing...The x-rays showed that he also has Degenerative bone disease in BOTH of his hips :(

We were told from day 1 that it was unknown what would happen. He responded well to the tablets initially which was great, but the bones could degenerate super quick, or just not degenerate at all, or be somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately his regular vet is the resident expert on this stuff and more importantly this breed, and he just happens to be away and wont be back until Thursday. So the vet we saw today didn't want to fix the cruciate ligament and risk doing more damage, so he has to remain confined for the next week or so.

So... looks like he will most likely be needing surgery to fix his hips, as I had already thought. I don't care how they fix him, just as long as they can!! Its horrible seeing him hobble and want to follow us around but not being physically able to.

Anyway I am exhausted!!!! At 4:00 he started to wake up from the anesthetic, so I jumped in the car, already dressed for going out later on, and raced to the vet. Got there at 4:45, chatted to the vet, had Onslow in the car by 5 and took off back home. Got home at 5:45, locked Onslow in the spare room with his bed and water and let Belle say a quick hello before I seperated them and took off. I left home at 5:55, thankfully there was no traffic going to the City and I got to the cinema carpark at 6:42 - Movie started at 6:45. However I had to race down the road to the shops to get some cash, then back up, ring Travis who came out to give me the ticket and then I got to finally go in and relax JUST as the movie started to boot up!

We got home around 9:30, and I cooked a delicious low fat Sticky date cake (although I might have to add some caramel to the recipe... it just needed *something* else) Put some candles on and mustered up just enough energy to sing happy birthday to Trav.

I think I will sleep well tonight!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to Travis :) Hope you have a great day... and don't stuff yourself full of caramel mud cake at work! LOL

Here is the birthday boy with the injured boy before leaving for work this morning:



What a day! At least I got the day off work though ;)
Anyway lets start at Monday... I get home from work and Onslow was limping about and being all sad. Certainly not the boisterous dog he normally is. So I gave a few extra painkillers for his hip hoping he had just been playing rough with Belle and jarred his leg or something.

Well Tuesday came around and he was walking fairly normal, a little stiff but nothing to worry about. Wednesday saw even more improvement.

Anyway so I come home on Thursday, run out the back to do my exercise (30 minutes of skipping before picking Travis up) didn't really pay much attention to the dogs and Onslow spent the whole time laying down. When I finished skipping I called them in and thats when I noticed Onslow really couldn't walk. He wasn't putting any weight at all on his left back leg. about 18 months ago found out he had hip dysplasia in BOTH hips (He was only 10 months old at the time). Anyway the left was really bad, the right only partially.. My immediate reaction was "oh here we go.. the left hips finally gone"

he was no better this morning and I left bright and early to take him to the vet. At the moment I'm just waiting on the x-ray results. Its either a sprain / injury (unlikely i think), his hip has degenerated and needs injections and / or surgery, OR he has snapped a cruciate ligament in his knee! Which is apparently very common in Mountain dogs. Go Figure!! Anyway I was kind of hoping he would stay overnight because we are going into the City tonight to catch a German movie at 6:45pm. As it is now, at 4:00pm I have to run to Vineyard (45 minutes from home) pick up Onslow, chat to the vet about the x ray results and where we are headed, do the 45 minute (maybe more with traffic) dash back home, drop Onslow inside, and then try and get into the city (about 50 minutes with a good run!) before the movie starts! Its going to be tight :)

Well my free paper and alphabet appeared in the new Scrapbooking memories magazine! LOL It looks so funny to see my design in real life on paper, and even funnier to see the great layouts that the design team made with it :)

I am really loving rectangle layouts at the moment...


All the above layouts are in my gallery if you wanna check out credits :)
{click here for my gallery}

And this is one I did with the photo I restored for Travis' mum :) This is Travis' Aunt who passed away at an early age (in her 30's I believe). The title was all Travis' idea :)



CREDITS: I *think* the papers are from Meredith Fenwick... The Quirky paper pack I think; Gerbera - Possum; Curled frame - Nancy Comelab; Painted Frame - Jen Wilson; Painted flower - Helena Jole; Alpha - Meredith Fenwick; stitching - Lauren Grier

Well I took Belle for a 45 minute walk. It was so funny to take her on a walk by herself. usually she *insists* on being in front and zooms off at a billion miles an hour.. but because she didnt have Onlsow and Travis to race today she took her time and stopped every 2 meters to have a good sniff in the grass!! LOL I wore her out and now shes sound asleep instead of wandering around like a lost soul looking for Onslow :) I came back home and did my high impact aerobics and im exhausted now! I think I need a nanna nap before going back to the vet! LOL

:)

Lookie what I should be getting in about 3 weeks:


But in this colour (not this fancy model, I get the cheap base model above LOL):


Work has bought in a new policy that we are only allowed to get 4 cylinder cars (At the moment I have a 6 cylinder Holden Commodore) due to Environmental reasons and the rising petrol prices. Which is fine by me.

My car has been due to be swapped since October but I have had to wait for the policy to be finalised. At first they said we were only allowed to get a Toyota Camery (Still nice IMO) so I ordered one. THE NEXT DAY they said.. oh Rav4's are the same price we might add that to the list LOL So i made them cancel my order and waited and waited.. finally they said yes!

So I got to pick my colour and its all ordered and should be delivered in 3 weeks. woo hoo!!! Seeing as its just the 2 of us and we dont need the back seat, we can take it out and have HEAPS of room in the back :) We can fit all our scuba diving stuff in easily - including tanks, OR the dogs can spread out and not be squished fighting for room on the backseat of a sedan :) and i will be the first person at work who gets one!!! hehehehehe

oooh we are of to see the Red Hot Chill Peppers tonight :) I had forgotten all about this concert so im all excited now!! LOL

Weekend wrap

Well we left home on Friday morning to head out to mudgee.. and after sitting in a heap of traffic the majority of the way through the blue mountains, we finally arrived around 3:15 at Jessica's Guest house and vineyard.



The house was beautiful! A fully self contained 3 bedroom cottage about 7kms out of the town centre with its own vineyard. The views were beautiful and my favourite bit was watching the cows outside the kitchen window whilst cooking and washing up :)




There was a gorgeous deck out the back complete with hammocks and a BBQ. Oh and did I mention breathtaking views???






Anyway so Friday we explored the place and went out for dinner and basically just relaxed.

Saturday we went on a wine tour. We went with Mudgee Wine & Country Tours and had the best time!! Jan was lovely, made sure we had cheese and bikkies to clean out pallette after each winery and filled us up with bits of Mudgee trivia and gossip :) We went to 8 wineries and in total we bought 12 bottles. Cant wait to crack some of those open! If you head to mudgee and want to go on a bus tour to the wineries, I highly recommend Mudgee wine and Country tours!!



I love this photo of all the old vats:


Travis and I bought our bikes along, however there were these huge spike things in the grass which we werent warned about... of course all of our tyres went flat within about 10 minutes! LOL



On the Sunday we had another relaxing day, drove to Gulgong to wander around the town there, came back to mudgee for lunch, had a relax in the afternoon and watched the football and then went to Thai for dinner.

Jen booked a cab to get us at 6:45 as the booking was for 7:00pm, using the directions stated in the guestbook. Its only a new place, near the edge of town. So we are all ready, all 4 of us waiting out the back of the house, where we can see the highway and the long long driveway. We see a cab approach.. and then hoon past... go down the dirt road. Stop. Reverse. drive forward. Reverse. Turn. Go into someone ELSES driveway and stop. Jen rings up the cab company, and suddlenly is giving the driver directions. We were thinking wow, how neat that you actually get to talk to the driver! So she's going ok turn around. Keep going about 500m then turn right. Yep keep going. Um I think you've gone past it. Yep, cant see your lights. LOL Meanwhile Gregs in the background giving more directions, Jens telling him to shush and Travis and I find it funny. So the driver FINALLY finds the driveway, and says yep, got it.. and hangs up. Well, we told him to keep to the right and take the right-hand driveway, but he didnt. SO another phone call, more directions and finally we get in :)

So we are in there chatting away to the lovely driver having a bit of a laugh. Suddenly we hear over the two way radio, a lady ringing up to book a cab.. we all look at each other. We ask so... does that mean OUR conversation just then was broadcast? The driver goes "Yep! and all of Mudgee just heard you".

A few hours later we finish our delicious thai and hopped into the first cab on the rank. A different driver. We say we are going to Jessicas guest house. He laughed and said Oh its you lot!! Dont worry, I know exactly how to get there.. past the concrete wall, righ driveway.. no sweat. Apparently this guy had 4 male passengers at the time who were having a great laugh at the conversation :)

ANyway we left bright and early on the monday and managed to beat all the traffic and was home at 11:00 :) nice!