Our poor boy!!!

well, we took Onslow (left) to see Dr. Rob Zammit (from Burkes Backyard) on Saturday to look at his limp / awkwardness . He is 10 months old now, and from the day we got him he has always been more awkward and gumpy compared to his sister. Anyway, at 6 months old our normal vet told us its most likely bones growing at different rates, or a muscle injury from playing rough, and not to do anything until he has finished growing (12 months).

Well, recently we have noticed his limp get worse, and that it was quite pronounced on his left leg. As he gets tired, his left legs starts to drag. Dr. Zammit took one look at him and said yep, he's got a big problem, he's in pain (never thought he was cos he always wags his tail and never cries out) and I want to x-ray him this afternoon, so we need to leave him over night. SO we had to then turn up on Sunday (he is not a local vet either, 40 minutes to get there) and we looked at the x-rays and he has Hip Dysplasia. Basically the "ball" part of the thigh bone isnt sitting in the hip socket and it is so bad in the left hip that surgery is really the only option. It is partially dysplased in the right hip.

hehee I love this photo.. it was of his first trip to the park when he was about 5 months old :) He loved it and kept running through the long grass like a mad-man! HE was covered in sticks and prickles :)

Anyway... so a hip replacement is out of the question (just a tad too expensive at $10,000 for two hips!!) so we have another surgical procedure to try (with a more "do"-able price tag), which the vet has had good results with previously. Hopefully we can get him in soon... we are going overseas in April so we need him to recovered enough that he doesnt need extra special care at that time.

While im posting pics, here he is as a little puppy. awwwwww he was such a cutie!!! and the runt of the litter.. he was a fair bit smaller than the female we got from the same litter.. he has passed her in both height and bulk now!! LOL He's a big boy :)

Speaking of pets, my black axolotl *finally* died on the weekend! She has been starving herself for months, was wasting away to nothing, and recently her tail fell off, and her back legs were starting to fall off (dont ask why or how!! it was sooo gross!!!) So now I have my yellow one left in the tank :) Might buy some goldfish for her to chase around.... Anyway thats my story! Will keep you updated on Onlsow and his operation :)

eww gross!

I get home around 5:15 each afternoon, I leave home at 6:05 to get Travis from the station. During this time at home by myself, I bring the dogs in, get changed, and start preparing dinner. So yesterday I did all that. It was hot hot hot and the dogs were inside sleeping on the slate under the fans with air conditioner going (yes, they are sooooo spoilt!!) Well, im in the kitchen preparing dinner, I hear Onslow get up and wander down the hallway. He prefers to sleep on the carpet in the lounge, so this was nothing out of the ordinary.

At 6:03 I grabbed my keys and phone and went to the lounge to get onslow up and locked in the dining room with Belle so they dont jump all over Travis when he gets home.

Well........ I wander into the lounge..... Onslow is laying near the front door....... Jessie (cat) is sleeping about 2 meters away from him. In between the 2 animals is "stuff" on the carpet. hmm... I thought... thats quite a large furball for jessie to do...
hang on... I didnt hear her cough it up...
hang on.... it looks funny.....
hang on... this STINKS like poo!!!!!!!!! Onslow had done a great big sloppy gastric on the carpet!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not impressed!!!!!!!! They are house trained and *usually* very good with letting us know that they need to go to the poo patch outside!!

So then I was in a pickel.. do I just leave it and get Travis, or clean it up and leave travis waiting in the hot sun. (*note - Travis hates being hot, and he hates waiting!!!!) I opted for cleaning. well, partly.. because it was so sloppy it couldnt be picked up easily. I drowned it all in carpet cleaner (mm lavender and has a deodoriser in it!) and got Travis (who didnt have to wait cos his train was late anyway) and then finished it off when I got home.

Funny.. whenever I have to clean up accidents, whether the cat's furballs, or the dogs accidents, I get the same line: Get used to it.. good practise for when we have kids etc. And funny enough, Travis always sneaks off after saying it leaving me to clean it up myself!!! LOL ALthough I must admit he did help with this one though ;)

So.. that was my afternoon! Apart from that, we went scuba diving on Sunday (yay! havent been in a year so I was sooo happy to get back in the water). It was pretty unplanned though.. we drove to Mossman to look at buying the rest of our gear. We have half of the stuff required (LOL The cheapest bits!!) and the most important bits like the tank, the bit that holds you take to your back, things to breathe through and compass, computers etc we havent gotten yet due to the cost involved. But, hiring these isnt cheap either, and the gear is sometimes pretty old and crappy.

Anyway back to the point.... we sold travs car the other week, and as we dont need another we have spare cash *yay* so we went to look at buying this stuff. Well, we picked what we wanted but were told to come back so we can actually test it out in the water before buying (They are SUCH nice people... Plunge diving at Mossman if you want to get into it.. great shop!!)
It was a nice shallow dive (only 6m) and we saw a biiiig starfish, a couple of octpus, cuttle fish (I LOVE cuttle fish) puffer fish, and the usual normal fishies. ahhhh.. so relaxing on dives.

Our new camera has a water proof case for it available frmo canon so we are going to get one of those so we can take pics. And then I can post pics here so you can see what im talking about ;)

Anyway thats about all....... Thanks for reading down this far if you are still with me :) I didnt intend for it to be this long :)

Weekend wrap

Phew! Well.. what did we do..
Oh! saturday we went out for the lovely Kims birthday do! A day at Paddington Lawn Bowls Club!! LOL it was a great day! Lawn bowls is so much fun!!! I never realised how "trendy" it has become now.. not one member of the "blue rinse brigade" in site.. just lots of young trendy Eastern suburd-ites. We caught the train in (penrith to Paddignton is about an hours drive or just under.. couldnt be bothered LOL) and were home by about 8:30pm.. talk about party animals!!! hahhhaa

LOL Dh was concentrating soooo hard!! by the end of the day I was bowls queen! Battling it out with the best of them :) That is, once I actually figured out HOW to use the balls... I didnt quite get the concept of them being weighted, so they roll in an arc.. I was aiming in a straight line and really rolling them with so much force like it was a 10 pin bowling ball!!! hahahhhaa

hmm... I drank a mouldy tea that DH made for me... the cup came out of the dishwasher apparently and appeared clean to him... but when i drank it the cup was covered in mould!! noooooo!!!! hehehhee

What else? Cleaned the house on Sunday, did some washing, ironed about 3 weeks worth of ironing which was almost piled to the ROOF!!! And then relaxed and scrapped :)
I did this while watching the cricket on Sunday afternoon:

Pic was taken in 2004 at a friends wedding, and it is of DH and Kim, the one who had the bowls birthday. I love the bright happy colours in the kit, which is by Dana Robinson :)

OH and yesterday (monday) whilst not technically part of the weekend it will be included.. DH surprised me by buying me a new camera!! I had told him I wanted it and he bought it o the sly ;) So sweet!!! :) I havent taken any proper shots yet.. just been fiddling with all tyhe bits and pieces :) I will post some when i get some!! I have finally discovered HOW to actually post things!!! ahhhhaha

Well, gotta pick DH up from the station in 10 minutes so i better get off here and get started on some dinner!! LOL

Ive been Tagged!!

Thanks Kylie! LOL took me a while to realise ;) hehhee

Four jobs you have had in your life
1. At the local AMF Bowling cafe - I lasted 3 hours!! LOL and NEVER GOT PAID!!
2. Donut King (I miss the free donuts!)
3. Dairy Farmers as a Lab assistant (testing cows milk)
4. Here - Local Council health inspector :)

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1. Legends of the Fall
2. The Lion King
3. Meet the parents
4. Griswolds - All of them!

Four Places You Have Lived
1. Werrington County, NSW, AUS
2. Emu Heights, NSW, AUS
3. no more.
4. no more.

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch
1. Reno 911
2. Kath and Kim
3. Little Britton
4. Fawlty Towers

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation
1. Daintree rainforest
2. Hamilton Island
3. Gold Coast
4. Canberra

Four Websites You Visit Daily
1. Scrapboxx
2. Sydney morning herald
3. Digital scrapbook place
4. Blogspot!

Four Of Your Favorite Foods
1. Pasta
2. sausages (cant get enough.. especially red wine flavoured, and spicy lamb... *drooling*)
3. Chocolate
4. Ice creams

Four Places You Would Rather Be Right Now
1. A tropical island on holidays
2. Scuba Diving somewhere
3. Realxing at home
4. anywhere but here at work!!!

Four Bloggers You Are Tagging (Sorry, had to raid the Blog thread on the boxx cos this seems to have done a LOT of rounds!!!!)
1. Tam
2. Cass
3. Steph
4. Michelle

Back to the daily grind.

And as soon as i walk through the doors I magically start to feel tired! LOL
Although that might have soemthing to do with going for a walk at 5am yesterday, doing some aerobics yesterday afternoon and then another 5am walk this morning :) hehehehe

DH and I have been invited to a friends birthday and we will be spending the day playing lawn bowls!! LOL Crackerjack style I would imagine. How fun! I am getting excited about it cos its nice to have something different.. never played lawn bowls before so Im sure I can post some funny pics on my blog! hahaha

I have 2 axolotls one is yellow and one is black, and for some reason, the black one has just stopped eating.. gotten to the point now where she is just skin and bones and floats around at the top of the tank.. anyway she had one small bit of food last week (the first in months!) and thats it.. I spent 20 minutes last night supporting her with one hand (cos she was kind of on her side) and holding a piece of meat to her mouth with the other.. she wanted to eat but I dont think she has the strength cos she was just nibbling but not really getting anything. Anyway I have had them both for 5 years, and this one is my favourite.. so sad to see her just wasting away, and not being bale to do anything. dunno why she stopped eating for.. she did something similar a few years back but snapped out of it after 8 weeks and got fat again. Anyway I dont hold much hope for her this time! poor little thing is too skinny.

LOL Although I would love to have some gold fish again! I bought these axolotls not knowing that they would grown to about 30 cm in length and eat all the gold fish from my fish tank!!! LOL I also wasnt aware that they can live for over 10 years either!!! hahahaha. So make sure you research cute little walking fish before purchasing two of them ;)

Happy new Year!

well Merry chrissie and happy new year :)

I enjoyed my week off from work, but really I think I need longer!! LOL I just was not ready to go back yet!

hmm, well after all this christmas and new year food, not to mention my birthday lunch put on by my sister linda, I am feeling very full, and am so sick of cake!!!! LOL I have put on a whole 6kg since my wedding just over a year ago, so I am now launching back into the exercise regime! well, easing my way back in slowly!! LOL I used to do so much exercise when i was at home.. I could spend an hour doing skipping and pilates while mum cooked dinner.. now that I have moved out, by the time i come home from work, cook, clean and organise lunch for the next day, im exhausted!! So the solution.. getting up at 5am each morning to go for a brisk 40 minute walk, and doing either aerobics or a bike ride most (not all) evenings before eating dinner. I can handle early mornings, and I am much more motivated to go out before dinner so I have something kicking me along to hurry up and get home so I can eat!! LOL 6 kilos isnt much, but its enough when all my clothes are suddenly struggling to fit!! hahahaha. I dont eat much "bad" food.. lots of fresh fruit, vegies, salads at lunch, grilled meat / fish and hardly anything fried, and seldome have dessert except for the odd "paradise lite" biscuits or jelly.. so must just be the lack of exercise. Which is annoying because a change of diet is the easy option!!! LOL

Anyway I had a great birthday and a great christmas... i was just starting to get into the Christmas mode and now its all over! hahaha. Well, I still have the tree and tinsel up at home.. and christmas carols are still playing through the speakers at work..

I really want to change these dots, but I couldnt find any templates that i liked more than this, and im too lazy to fiddle around and add my own stuf.. LOL Maybe one day when im bored ;)