Marching On.

Well, it is now March and we are starting with a rainy autumn. We have had flooding in areas around our city and in the north-west parts of our state. Actually, there has been storms and rain in almost all of the states in Australia except Western Australia. Thankfully the rain stopped in time for our 2nd child to go on school camp and for me to go up North to spend the week end with my parents....child free! My Mother bought a new computer and I needed to help her get used to Windows 7, transfer all her photos and data from her old computer and download a few security programs, etc. She panics if things aren't where they supposed to be and as Windows 7 is slightly different to her ancient computer that was using Windows XP, it was too overwhelming for her. So I got on a train and went up to her farm to help her write out new instructions of how to get around on her new computer. She says she is still a little nervous of it but she is loving it. Her old computer was given to her by some lovely friends, Terry and Robyn and for the past 3 years it has been her passion. She is a blinkie and email freak and all the family delight in her colourful animated emails. Humongous animated birthday emails are a favourite of hers. She likes to include voice clips and music in her emails as well. But it was time to say goodbye to her old computer as it was starting to be extremely glitchy and a never ending source of problems and frustration. It was a wonderful way for her to be introduced to the wonderful world of computers and without her dear friends gifting her this old computer she would never have even considered buying a computer. Now she doesn't know herself, her new computer is modern, fast and best of all, reliable. My sister did a wonderful job of teaching Mum how to use her old computer and I have helped a lot too. Mum never dreamed that she would know how to do the things she has learned and we are all proud of her computer achievements. We have always been a phone call away when she has needed help with some strange problem or other, like folders, photos and programs that 'just piss off' and task bars that wind up on the side of the screen. It can be extremely difficult to explain what she needs to do to overcome a problem over the phone or impossible to understand what she means when she says things like 'The thing down the bottom has just pissed off and I don't know how to get it back'
Some of my favourite computer sayings of Mum's are: (In Outlook Express, to embed a photo)...'going to the mountains' and (checking how much free space she has on her hard drive)...'checking on my pink' LOL! Well both those things are completely different in Windows 7, so the train trip up to her place was a necessity. When our whole family goes up to Mum and Dad's farm, Mum always buys a ton of treats and goodies for the kids, as any doting Grandparent does and as a joke I said to Mum...'I hope you are going to buy me some treats' and she took it quite seriously and I have returned home almost a dress size larger! (and the dreaded chocolate overdose season is almost upon us too!)
Anyway, here is a photo of my Mum and her new computer. Notice the colour of Mum's choice in desktop and t-shirt, hmmm, wonder where my love of purple came from...lol!Mum insisted that she pay for my train tickets to and from her place and a little extra besides. So my DH and I were able to go to the movies the Monday before I left and also the Monday that I got back. Thank you Mum....! I really enjoyed going to Mum's place and helping her with her new computer, I missed Rob and the kids and it was strange but lovely to wake up in the morning and not have to do anything for anyone other than myself, no fights to break up or set up sources of entertainment to placate bored or grumpy children. It was indeed a refreshing break. The 2 movies Rob and I went to see were 'The Wolfman' on the Monday before I went away and on the Monday I came home we saw Avatar 3D. Both movies were wonderful. 'The Wolfman had me screaming at those certain 'jump out of your seat' moments and there were plenty of those kind of moments in this film. There were probably about 20 other people in the cinema with us and I am a screamer, always have been always will be, can't help it....I get a fright and I scream. What a joy it was for poor hubby (sarcasm) to delight in the fact that I was the only person in the cinema screaming at all the scary parts, lol. He said he could tell lots of people were jumping out of their seats, but I was the only screamer...lol. It was a really good movie tho, a well written werewolf movie. Sir Anthony Hopkins was at his finest and Benicio Del Toro played a brilliant role too! I know I am all about vampires, but a well done werewolf movie can be good too. I've seen few werewolf movies that have done it for me. As a teen we loved 'American Werewolf in London', (hmm, Rik Mayall was in this...might have to track this down on DVD) and 'The Howling' but our all time favourite werewolf movie was 'The Company of Wolves' ... I think I had better pop into JB hi-fi and see if I can pick this up too! ...DH has never seen it but I have seen it about 40 times at least. Many quirky quotes from this movie have remained in my vocabulary. Naturally I have seen and own 'Underworld' but the idea of vampires and werewolves fighting each other seems a little off to me. Similar to the tacky t-shirt art from the '90s that had legendary Australian predators, crocodiles and great white sharks fighting, or screen and music idols Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley painted 'together'. Just a bit tacky for my liking. My DH enjoyed Underworld more than I did. Anyway, here is a photo of DH and I at the movies, ready to see The Wolfman...and yes, I will probably do a layout for both the above photos. As well as this photo...of my purple gum boots that I adore and have been wearing a lot lately on account of the weather.

An elderly man even asked me where I got my purple gum boots, as he needed some new gumboots for gardening! Lol.... (nowhere fancy, just Kmart) hee hee :)

And speaking of layouts... I had a layout of mine win an awesome prize! DST Gold Member kit challenge using Kari Hentzelt's kit 'Fabulousity' I could hardly believe my luck, Kari's prize for me was ...her entire shop!! Yes, I got to download everything she has in her store at Scrapbook Bytes! Amazing prize....and this is what I have done with some of her beautiful products...Credits to my desktop layout Here and link to the layout that won me this awesome prize: Here

Another layout I am very proud of is this one, that got a nice comment on it from one of the kit's designers, Kate Hadfield, thanks Kate! :) (at my Lilypad gallery)

Credits at DST here.

This is our 2nd eldest child at his end of year play in Late November. I am missing him at the moment, as he went away on school camp the morning that I came home from my Mum's place. So I haven't seen him since Friday morning. That makes it 5 days I haven't seen him. The longest I have ever been away from one of my children. But he comes home this afternoon, so I am looking forward to giving him a big bear hug when he gets off the bus! Yippee!
I am happy I have been able to post at least once a month to my blog here... Hoping to keep that up. See you in April! :)