JANUARY

We saw the new year in at St.Helens, as we do each year.

The caravan park put on a party at the camp kitchen for everyone. Right on midnight there was a thunder and lightening storm and down came the rain. Our friends Jenny and Tony have their caravan next door to the camp kitchen so we took cover on their deck.

Then on the 4th it was back to work again for both of us.
The following weekend we took a drive up to Latrobe and went to the market. Then we had lunch at Mackeys Hotel before we went to visit Jane and Neil in the lolly shop. Jane makes awesome thickshakes and she gave me a Blackberry Cheesecake Ice Cream from the Valhalla range of ice cream that they stock there. So yummm.

On the way home we called in to see Peters mum.

We've just spent another weekend at St.Helens. Angelina and Joe came down with the boat. Krissie and I looked after Jimi while the others all went out in the boat. All they managed to catch was one flat head. The next day they went out in the boat again and this time caught two leather jacket and one flat head.

We went up thru Scottsdale on the way home, called in to visit Bob and Peg, some oldies who come to St Helens often.

TODAY : The last day of January: And its so HOT - about 38 degs, which is extreme for this part of the world. Especially where we live by the water, but even today the wind is hot.

Well, we drove in airconditioned comfort across the river to Beauty Point for lunch at the Beauty Point Waterfront Hotel. Usually its very nice there, but they have changed their menu and left all my favourite things off it ! So we both settled for the Special - Roast and dessert for $13.

Sounds like good value, but the meat was soo tough. And it only came with sweet potato and yukky cauliflour. They took over an hour to bring our dessert but thankfully the Sticky Date Pudding was worth waiting for.

Now, I'm off to hang some washing out and clean up the kitchen before I settle down with a nice cool drink

Christmas New Year

We had a quiet Christmas at home with Peters mum, sister Bev, her husband David , and their daughter Linda.

After lunch we went over to Hadspen to see Angelina, Krissie and Joe.

Then we hit the highway and went to visit Aunty Joyce in the hospital at Campbell Town.

After we left Campbell Town we headed for the east coast.

When we got to St.Helens, our gate key would not open the park gate. it was 9pm by this time so we thought we might have to leave the car outside and walk up.

Luckily I had given my gate pass to Shaun and Reg and as they were also camping at the same place, they arrived a few minutes after us and let us in!

BOXING DAY:

Took off out to the Bay of Fires while Peter played golf. Showed Shaun and Reg around all our favourite places. Glad we did that trip. They've just now announced that they are turning the Bay of Fires area into a National Park

Angelina and Joe arrived later in the day, so we packed up all our Christmas dinner left overs and headed out to Akaroa Beach for a big picnic with Ham, Salmon, Turkey and salad and veg. Plus a pavlova that Shaun and I threw together at the caravan that afternoon.

Jimi had a good run on the beach and we found a humoungus jelly fish washed up on the beach..

SUNDAY: Back in the car again and back to Launceston to pick up Krissie and go out to a winery in Relbia for Guy Marshalls 50th B'day party. We spent a relaxing four hours being wined and dined under the big oak tree at the winery, then it was back in the car again for the two hour drive back to the coast.

MONDAY: Peter had to go home later today for work, so mid afternoon we all went up to Mt Elephant Famous Pancake Parlour. After stuffing ourselves on their gorgeous pancakes, Peter headed off and left Krissie and me to go back to St.Helens with Reg and Shaun. Ang and Joe had already left to go home that morning.

http://www.mountelephantpancakes.com.au/

TUESDAY: Pack up day for Shaun and Reg, but they took me to the supermarket first to stock up since I didn't have a car until wednesday night when Peter arrived back again.

We took Photos at Kirwans Beach of Shaun and Angelina's Kirby bears...... and Jimi.

MY FAMILY

My new family:

Val, my birthmum, lives near Somerset. She loves to get out and about and is often in Burnie helping Joanna with the kids when she works.
Above is me with cousins Colleen and Kylie and my birthmum Valerie

Joanna, married to Nick and they have Talia and Tyson. Jo works at a call centre in Burnie (as does our cousin Kylie)
This is my nephew Shaun (Denise's son) and my sister Joanna

Sandra, lives at Penguin and is married to Barry. Their kids are in WA so I havent met them yet. Sandra recently had a career change and is now doing Aged Care in a nursing home in Ulverstone.

This is all of us at Jo's house - Thats Sandra in the red jumper
Denise, Denise is the very first biological family member I met last year, lives in Port Sorell with Steven and their son Aaron. Their other son, Shaun lives nearby in Hawley with Reg.

David, my new brother - lives in Deloraine and works at Westbury. He is also the new Fire Chief at the Deloraine fire brigade after working as an ambulance officer for many years. This is David winning a worksafe award

I also have another brother, Shane, who I haven't met yet, he lives on the west coast and works on a fish farm on Macquarie Harbour.

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my eldest daughter  Angelina

Angelina is a hairdresser and part owner of the salon "Hair on Riseley" at Kings Meadows
Her and her partner Joe have a house at Hadspen and they have a dog called Jimi.

Ang and Joe like to travel, they have been to Thailand and Europe and Ang went to Bali and Thailand on her own. This year they are going cruising the South Pacific.

youngest daughter - Krissie

Shaun - Me - Denise - Krissie (Taken on the first day that I met Shaun and Denise)
Krissie lived at St Helens for over 3 years on her own. She did a course at the North East Education and Training Centre while there and now has a Certificate in Business.

Last year Krissie had an operation and had to be flown from the east coast in the Royal Flying Doctor plane. A few months after that we moved her into a purpose built unit on the ground floor of our house.
This year Krissie hopes to get a little dog as a companion.

Aunty Joyce
Aunty has finally decided that at 94 yrs old, she would be better off staying in a nursing home bed at the Campbell Town Hospital. She is still in a lot of pain after a hip operation two years ago and we hope that now she is in the hospital they might be able to help manage the pain.

Stephen:
He works for Glass Supplies as a truck driver and has a girlfriend, Shirleen, at George Town. His kids, Mark (working as a refrigeration mechanic) Alex (finishing his gap year) and Kate, who is off to uni this year! Can't believe they are all growing up so fast!!

Stephens family at Kates 18th B'day - from left: Alex, Stephen. me, Mark, Kate, Krissie and our cousin John

And Last but not least : PETER

After being transferred to Queenstown for a year, then St.Helens for 6 months, then George Town for 6 months, managing the Post Offices in these towns, he found that he enjoys working at George Town so much, he has decided to stay there until retirement


Thats Peter with the other love of his life - the caravan at St Helens

Happy New Year

Well, this is my first real life blog - I've done other ones about travel etc, but never one where I write about our every day life.

I've enjoyed reading everyone elses blogs, so I thought, here we are, 2010, the perfect time to make a start. New Year, new start. Why Not !?!

What a year 2009 was: First of all I was contacted by my sister Denise, we got to know each other on facebook then we met for the first time in Feb 2009. She is absolutely gorgeous and we love each other to bits.

• Thats me with Denise on the day that we met in person for the first time. Also Peter there and Denise's son at the back, Shaun.
  We also bought a new house in Feb 2009, so it was a very hectic time. The first week that we had moved into the house I had my friend Donna  (who now resides in Armidale in NSW) come and stay with us. It was a sad time because our old school friend from St.Thomas Mores, Lorraine Kramer (Sweeney) passed away.

No sooner had Donna returned to NSW than the renovations began - the lower level of our house originally had a large rumpus room, bedroom and laundry. The plan was to convert the entire ground floor into a self-contained unit. We had until the end of March to do it.

we coverted the ground floor of our house into a self-contained unit




I found a great builder and plumber who, amazingly, turned up when they said they would, and did exactly what I wanted them to do.

In March we went for a 10 day trip to NZ. We had booked it six months before we even thought about buying the house. We found airfares for $43 on the internet and thought "Why Not" ? We only got time to explore the North Island of NZ and absolutely loved it.

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  Kirby stowed away in our luggage - thats him near some waterfalls in the Bay of Islands region
  
  
  When we got home we had to do the finishing touches to the downstairs unit and move Krissie's things from her unit at St.Helens at Easter.
  
  Then the fun and games with meeting and getting to know new carers. But that soon sorted itself out.
  
  

Then I got to meet another sister, Joanna. What an awesome person she is too! Joanna and Denise came to stay along with Jo's little girl Talia. Love them all.

Thats Krissie and Joanna above (taken one night when we all went to stay at Denises place at Port Sorell)

Joanna and Denise went and told our other siblings that they had met me - so I was soon getting to know my new brother David, and sister Sandra, on facebook each night!

me and my birthmother Valerie

This is all of us: Sandra, Denise, David, Me and Joanna

I took a day and went to meet Sandra at her work in Ulverstone. She is so beautiful and I fell in love with her straightaway.

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Not long after that I was talking to David on the phone one afternoon and he said he had to go to Launceston that evening. So we arranged to meet up for the first time at the Saloon Bar. David is an amazing person and I felt like I'd known him all my life.

We've all met up heaps of times since along with cousins and nieces and nephews. What a fantastic bunch. I even got to meet my birthmother Val for the first time last year too. She doesnt have the internet to keep in touch all the time..... but, the great thing is, she has a mobile phone and does text messages.... so we keep in touch almost daily that way!

We spent some time together on the east coast at Binalong Bay in December along with her niece Colleen (my cousin) and their family, Kylie, Jamie, David, Colleens hubby Adrian and their grandchildren.

• The other big thing for 2009 was, After Peters holidays in October I decided that now that Krissie was all settled, I would go back to work again.

The first job I applied for, I got.
The Launceston City Mission have decided to sell some of their high value items on ebay, and as I've run a few ebay-based businesses over the years, I was lucky enough to get the job.


So, that was 2009 in a nutshell