Thursday, June 23, 2016

New family member

Sometimes we make decisions that aren't clear cut. There are plenty of reasons why we do not need a bunny. There is a woolly, brown, lip-licking reason why a bunny is not a great idea for our family. There is also an animal loving girl, with a friend who owns a male and a female rabbit (on purpose!), who was offered a baby and her heart was set on it in the blink of an eye.


So, we have a little white bunny with red eyes and a sweet face. The owner of the bunnies, whose name is Sunny (Jane and I did suggest the name "Funny Bunny from Sunny"), says that she's a girl. I am not convinced that we know that for sure, but Bethany is calling her Mimi.


We are all quite taken with her, Milo especially, which is something of a concern!

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Weekends

We are definitely at a fast stage of life; music teaching, tennis, cycling, gymnastics, the gym, Bible study, stamping; the weeks go so fast. The weekends go frightfully quickly, too, but we have had some great ones.

A few weeks ago our minister and his wife, Sandy and Karen, had their last weekend in Wagga. There were speeches, tears, much cake, sushi, curry, more cake and even more tears. They have been at our church all of the sixteen years we have been in Wagga. They have been such an encouragement and support to us; we'll miss their teaching and their friendship.


The following weekend Mum and Dad came to stay on their way home from Tasmania. Their dog, Sunny, had been staying with us for the two and a half weeks they were away. Sunny is about one quarter the size of Milo, but quite the boss when he comes to stay. We took some cute photos of Sunny in Milo's big bed and Milo in Sunny's tiny one, but they are on my old phone. I have a new iPhone now, so, hopefully, another obstacle to blogging will have disappeared....

Finally, this past weekend we had a long overdue get-together with all of Andrew's family. Andrew's sister worked out a place on the coast that is the same distance from the two families in Gloucester and us in Wagga. The winner was Corrimal, a suburb of Wollongong.


It was forecast to rain a lot, the whole weekend, but it held off enough for all of the third generation to get very sandy and wet.


If you look hard, you can even see Jordy and Toby in the ocean with boards! Madness.


Twenty-one of us went out to dinner together on the Saturday night - chaotic but fun. We stayed in cabins next to the beach. They were new and spacious. Each family had a cabin, but the kids were shared out. Having been the only girl, with five, much younger boy cousins, I really appreciate that each of my children has a special, similar age BFF cousin. Toby also gets a few adoring younger boy cousins.


On Sunday morning we gathered at a cafe to have a final meal together and celebrate Ron's birthday. Ninety-two years old, surrounded by eleven grandchildren! After much hugging, we ran to our cars and drove home through the rain.

I couldn't go away every weekend and manage to keep us fed and in clean clothes during the week, but we're definitely going to do it again next year. New tradition!

Friday, June 3, 2016

One Book One Wagga

The One Book One Wagga Gala Dinner was held last week; a whole week ago already! After stepping in last minute two years ago, and then being asked to do it last year with a book I didn't love (I didn't even blog about it!), I was thrilled to be asked to host a conversation with Sofie Laguna, Miles Franklin award winning author of The Eye of the Sheep.

There's a fair bit of work involved; I read the book twice, read her other novel for adults, and came up with questions to ask, hopefully in a logical, flowing order (follow the links to see my reviews of the books). Once that is all sorted and I feel prepared, I am pretty happy to just sit on stage and chat. Sofie made that so easy, she really is delightful. We had a great discussion about the situation for female writers, the push for everyone to be normal, the tough themes in her book, like domestic violence and the really important stuff like which is best, Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights (she hedged her bets on that one but promised to read Jane Eyre again).


As you can see below, we had much to say even when we weren't on stage!


It was a great night and there was a lot of positive feedback. Well done to Wagga City Library. I wonder what book we'll do next year!