First day back at school....

Well today all of my kids have gone back to school after the Christmas holidays......yay.

I don't start back until Wednesday so I am just going to enjoy today and tomorrow before I have to get back into everything.
It is so nice being in a quiet house using the computer without any interruptions.
The exercise regime is going to start today as well....despite it being sooo hot already.

I have just been online checking out one of my subjects for this semester.
It's all about social networking and I am not really looking forward to it as this is the only social networking thing I do.
Looks like I may be using facebook after all despite all of my protesting.

Oh well off to hang out a load of washing which will probably be dry before I finish hanging it out because it is so hot.

What a day!

Well Australia Day has come and gone for another year.
Apparently it was the hottest Australia Day in 20years so it was a perfect day to go for a jet boat ride on the Harbour.

If you ever go on this ride don't be fooled into thinking that the raincoat will keep you dry.

Marissa sat in the front without a raincoat and we were just as wet as her and we wore a raincoat.
It was such a lot of fun and the kids are already asking if we can do it again next year.
A huge tip though, if you ever have a ride take your shoes off and leave them behind as they will be soaked through and there is nothing worse than wearing wet socks and wet shoes home from the city. Also take a change of clothes because we were still wringing out our clothes as we walked to the train to come home.
We also wandered through the activities in Hyde Park and looked at the vintage cars lining College street and Maquarie Street and just had a really lovely family day out in the city.

It was a fabulous way to celebrate the completion of my ETL507 and ETL503 assignments.

Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day everyone.
I absolutely love the celebrations for today.
Every year we venture into the city, we start at Hyde Park and then weave our way down to Circular Quay looking at all of the vintage cars along the way.
The boys love it, and as my 16year old informed me last night "it is our tradition".
I tried to veto the whole thing last night because today it is going to be the hottest Australia day in 31 years and we have experienced some hot ones!
Anyway it wasn't to be and we are going to head in after everyone wakes up.
We have added an extra bit of excitement this year as we are going to go on a jet boat ride in the Harbour and out through the heads which should be fun. Every year we are nagged to go for a ride so this year I pre purchased tickets at half price as a surprise, except that I am hopeless at keeping secrets and told them during the week. Needless to say they are really excited. Hopefully we will get our ride in before it storms.

I am so excited that I can enjoy today because very late last night I finished my ETL507 portfolio which was very exciting.
Denise now has my two assignments and is busy formatting them and spacing them out beautifully for me so that I can hand both of them in on the weekend.
It is such a relief.
I now have about 2 weeks of freedom before I start the last 2 subjects of my course...(assuming that I pass these)
Oh well off to the city for the day....

Happy Australia Day.

Collection development policy

I am really happy to say that I have completed the second assignment for ETL503. It was to develop a collection management policy for my school.
I think that I have done a really good job of it and I am really happy with the finished product.
Now I guess it will be up to the markers, and the truth is no-one ever really knows what they are looking for despite there being a marking criteria supplied.
I am going to let it sit for a few days and then will venture back to it to make modifications before I hand it in on the weekend.
Today I have started to write my portfolio for ETL 507. I have a week to complete it, although I think that it probably needs a bit longer. Oh well it's lucky that I work best under pressure, because there sure is a lot of pressure at the moment.
We are now in the last week of the school holidays and on the way to buy bread for lunch I bought a pair of school shoes for Marissa. Yay a good job done in less than 5 minutes.....quickest ever and that included getting a car park.
Oh well moving on to my portfolio.

We're going home!

By chance today we discovered that the highway is open.

Joel fell off his rip-stick and hurt his thumb. On the way to the hospital in at Maclean I noticed that cars were being allowed to drive towards Ballina so I stopped and asked the RTA people if the road was opened. It was.....so then I phoned Mark and got him to get his flight changed to today so that he could fly up.

He did and he is on his way. He got our neighbour to drive him into the airport and got there just in time to catch his flight. Any later and he wouldn't have made it.

I'm glad Joel was pushing me to take him into the hospital or we would never have known.

Mum has gone to Ballina to get him and we are at home madly packing.

I'm so pleased to be able to head home because now Mark will only miss one day at work instead of two.

I must say I will miss the easy going life I have had at Yamba. Once I get back to Sydney I will hit the ground running as we get ready for school, I finish 2 major assignments in 2 weeks, transport Brendan to his Green Shield finals, take Joel for his orthodontist check up, see my specialist, have an infusion, and do all the other things that I haven't though of yet.

Oh well it has been nice being in holiday mode for so long.

Mum and I haven't even had any fights and I have been here for a month and 1 day!

As for Joel's thumb, we didn't stay at the hospital as it was full and we were way down the priority list so it looked like we would be there all day. The plan is that now we will get it x rayed when we get back to Sydney if it is still sore.

The Road is open

Well it looks like the road out of Yamba has been opened.

Judging by the number of cars pulling caravans leaving town I can only assume it must be open.

I stopped and spoke to a worker manning the road block this morning and she confirmed it would be open today but said the road to the north was still blocked and as the road was quite damaged would remain so until Monday so I can't get to Ballina still!!!

If I wanted to drive back to Sydney I would have to go the back way to Grafton and that could take at least 2 hours from Maclean. Usually the trip is about half and hour (if you don't get caught speeding).

Looks like we will be here for a bit longer.

Beach is great though so who cares????

Still here

I am still stuck in Yamba.
Looks like it will be until at least Monday.....at least they are consistent with their predictions.
Life still goes on.
We went to the beach this morning. Unfortunately the kids didn't stay in for too long because it was cold and the surf was fairly choppy.
This afternoon we are going to the movies to see Gulliver's Travels.
See life goes on as normal.....and I still have a wretched assignment to work on.