I'm sick...again

I can't believe it. Within 10 weeks, I've been off school for 8 days... and counting (and there's been 2 weeks of holidays in there!). I went to the doctor yesterday, hoping she'd say that I had a garden variety cold but it was not to be. She gave me the rest of the week off! So I'm at home, snoozing, coughing, watching daytime TV and, because I have become so accustomed to going through the motions of a virus, I pretty much have spent the afternoon waiting to vomit and am feeling much better for the time being having finally succumbed. Now I just have to wait for the next wave. 

Sorry, too much information.

I'm just SO over being unwell, and I really don't have the time for it at the moment (probably the reason I got sick in the first place). I have Year 11 and Year 10 exams to mark and reports to start writing. And just as I start to wallow in the self-pity of it all, I'm reminded of the sermon I heard on Sunday morning, which was essentially about letting God rule in your circumstance rather than letting circumstance rule your life.  It was a good sermon.

Of course, being sick means that the housework doesn't really get done. Not that Tom doesn't do as much as he can, it's just that housework is generally quite a lot for one person to do.

'My messy life' is once again an apt description of my life.

Love is in the Air...

It's Spring.

I'm still at work trying very hard to motivate myself to do some marking. (My Year 10s just completed a test this afternoon on Romeo and Juliet).  Everybody else has left the English office as there's the Year 12 Valedictory Dinner on tonight so they all made a quick getaway. So I'm sitting in the office in my little corner, listening to... hang on a second, what IS that noise? It sounds like a quiet "whoop whoop" noise. 

So I'm looking out the window and I see nothing.  

Maybe it's Tony's shitipoo that I just met "Wiki". How adorable (and tiny) is this?

No, I don't think it's the dog.

I look outside again, and then I see it. 

It's Spring.

The pidgins in the courtyard are looking for a mate. Or more specifically the male pidgins are chasing the female pidgins around the courtyard with their little tail feathers fanned out while they make that soft "whoop whoop" noise.

Mystery solved.

I should get onto that Year 10 marking.

A Peachy Video

While our house getting burgled was a complete nuisance, we did end up with a sweet computer that allows me to make videos. This was something I composed last holidays, it's not the most exciting video in the world but it only goes for 48 seconds, so you'll cope. Plus, it was made by me!

A long absence

Ok, so there really is no excuse for my long absence from blogging, but i've been inspired by the writers on www.bloggingaussie.blogspot.com, so it's time to get back into it and there's no time like the present. (Except that when I decided that last week we ran out of internet money and so then I had to wait to get full access again!). 

Hopefully I will post interesting things about the following:

1) Our puppy Peach, I am a doting parent and seriously, it's pathetic, I mean, she's a dog!

2) Our house, there's lots going on and I would like some feedback too, we are gardening (or ripping things out and not planting other things, but it feels like gardening) and thinking of what to plant. We are also testing some paint colours this weekend, so it really is all happening on the house front.

3) I teach a subject called English Language and I'm keen to share some of the fascinating things that I've found out since I started teaching it earlier this year (as well as things I'm continuing to find out).

And because no post is all that interesting without pictures, here's some of Peach's latest:

Featuring today are a number of Peach's unusual sleeping positions, this is a cushion that she has precariously placed herself on, under a chair, under the dining table.

This is Peach on 'her' couch, rather than just sit on the base of the chair she's perched herself on the cushion on the chair, crazy dog.

Lastly, the ultimate sleeping position. On her back, head off to the side somewhere. This is the position she gets herself into when she's exhausted or when she's been sleeping for a while, who would have thought this was even remotely comfortable!

Another Peach Video

This video gives a better indication of Peach's size, she is playing with my size 9 thong (or flip-flop for the Americans!). Sorry that she doesn't do much for a while, this whole photographing animals thing can be challenging!

On other Peach news (think that perhaps the blog might need renaming) I had to take her to the vet this morning after she slipped trying to run away from me up the stairs. Chasey is one of her most favourite games, unfortunately though, she seems to think that running away up the stairs to the deck is her best escape route, where she promptly realises that she can't get back down! Anyway, the grass was wet this morning and so she slipped on the bottom step and was then limping around the house. As Tom had taken the car to work this morning, I had to walk her up to the nearest vet who gave her an anti-inflamatory injection. She seems to be ok, no fractures or anything, so we'll just have to wait and see...

Until next time and more of Peach's puppy adventures!

Peach at Play!

Cute Puppy Photos

This is our new puppy 'Peach'. She is a spoodle (or for the Americans, a cockapoo) and is currently 8 and a half weeks old. She is certainly bringing much joy to our lives with her utter devotion to us and her playfulness.This first picture gives you an idea of how small she is - she gets in and out of everything.
The picture above is her snoozing away on the couch, I was with her originally but needed to get some housework done and didn't want to wake her! The picture below is her trying to get underneath the coffee table!

This box is her 'box of fun' it was the box that we used to bring her home in and was sitting at the front door. On Friday night, she dragged this box into the loungroom and then proceeded to gather all her toys from around the house and place them in her box! As you can imagine, it was hilarious to watch as well as surprising. Now whenever she finds something interesting on the floor she places it in the box - it certainly keeps us on our toes to ensure that nothing we're not happy to find a new home is left on the floor!

One of her favoured sleeping positions!

Melbourne

Had the pleasure of taking Juli into Melbourne city a couple of weeks ago, and thankfully Melbourne's weather decided to be kind (considering that it's the middle of winter!).

The day started with coffee on Southbank and enjoying the peacefulness until a seagull rocked up and stole the bacon from the plate of a poor man enjoying breakfast out a few tables down - the nerve of seagulls! We also took some touristy pics of Southbank, for all those of you who can't enjoy it's beauty.

We then decided we better go up the Rialto tower before the weather turned bad (it can happen at any moment!) where we saw some beautiful views of Melbourne.

The rest of the day was spent eating (Chinatown) and shopping (DFO Swanston St, worth visiting if you haven't yet done so, and you live in Australia!) - sorry no photos!

Marysville Under Snow

Well, the adventures of Tom, Glenda and Juli continue...

Last week we had Christian Union's mid-year conference Summit, it is held in Marysville, a 90km drive from Melbourne. Keep driving another 50kms and you reach Lake Mountain, one of Victoria's smaller ski areas, with only cross country skiing and snow play activities. Why do I tell you all this? Because, it is only supposed to snow in snow areas (like Lake Mountain), not in Marysville! However in Melbourne, we are experiencing a very cold winter and so, to the great delight of all the Aussie students, it snowed while we were in Marysville!

Here's some snapps of the happy occation!The Stevenson Falls, floodlight at night.

Me, Zac and Juli (one of the least impressed by snow, but thankfully was made up for by the beauty of the waterfall!)

There is something so beautiful about things covered in snow. To wake up on the Wednesday morning finding out that it had snowed, was something I had never expected in a non snowfield area of Australia and somehow, everything looked so much brighter (hmmm, probably because it was - snow, white, reflects sun, makes sense really)!