Decorating Trees

It is the season...while most people were decorating there Christmas trees with decorations and lights, it was time for me to do some serious recycling with those unwanted CD's.

For most of the time it was very effective (more than the pie dishes). Apricot season is over now for us and we have 5 litres stewed in the freezer plus 4 from last year!

More School results!

Michael's end of school year report is in, the envelope was opened by an anxious mum. Inside...

At most subjects Michael is working dilligently at year 3 level, and showing strong signs. In English Michael is working ahead of class level requirements, and in German Michael is showing strong understanding and exceeding requirements for his year level :)

School reports at his level are allocated in A,B,C,D,E (A for excellence, C for year level requirements, E for further assistance) for how their work slots in with their year level expectancy and 1,2,3,4,5 (1 for highly mastered, 3 year level requirement, 5 more further assistance) for understanding. Michael achieved mainly C's and 2/3's with the exception of English where he achieved a B/2 and German where he achieved a B/1. He was also presented with a strong character reference by his teacher and principal alike.

Now its on to year 4, where he has a 4/5 class with his first male teacher, Mr Richmond.

Uni Results are in

Second semester was always going to be tough and a little busy with Uni, Church and Family life. I'm please to say though that for my 4th year Education topic, Teaching Indigenous Australian Students, I got a Credit. Also got a Credit + for my essay (thanks for the proof read Stu).

My 2nd elective on Environment, Economy and Culture I got another Credit and last no surprises I got a High Distinction for Information Communication Technology part 2 (following on from 1st Semester).

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Natalie the Ballerina

Last night Natalie had her first ballet concert. She was one of Cinderella's mice and probably spent a grand total of 8 minutes on the stage! I was not allowed to film or take photos in the theatre, but I did take these photos in the dressing room before the show.
Grandma and Grandpa Cozens were over and also enjoyed the show, which included ballet (Disney Princesses) , jazz (Dusty Springfield - lots of glitter), modern (High School Musical), contemporary, hiphop, tap (my favourite bit, after Natalie, - they did Happy feet!). Not bad for a little dance school in Whyalla. I cried at all the little tiny people :P lol.
Natalie has a second show this afternoon (in 90mins actually) then we can think about being on holidays :)

Love and hugs (and hope you find the remote Al!)
-Debbie

Remote Life

Bedroom TV Remote lost....if found please return (Sam!)

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Christmas in Adelaide

Hey there,

If you get the opportunity, make sure you go and see the Christmas Tree in Victoria Square in the city. It is really quite spectacular! We went last night, and there were bubbles in the fountain, funky lights in the trees and the most massive tree I have seen! There were kids running around and laughing and having a ball.

Excuse the clarity of these shots, but they were taken with Rob's mobile as we left the camera at home, but you get the jist of how cool it is.

Natalie's Christmas Play

Hi all. Hope you are all well.

Natalie has a new vlog up in which she talks about being a cat in the Community Christmas Carol play on Sunday night. You can see her vlog here.

Also I have put the entire play (5ish minutes) up on Stuart's account and you can see that here. Not the best play ever seen, but the cat is cute and funny. ;)

All the best and enjoy.

Natalie GOT FEATURED!

Oh my goodness!!! The last thing I expected to see this morning when I started up Youtube was Natalie looking back at me from under the words FEATURED!

Check it out here.

I feel a little nervous about it. I'm not really sure why they chose that particular episode from all of hers, but I have been keeping an eye on the comments and her new subscribers all day, screening for scary people. Let me know if you come across anything dodgy.

Ok, now that I've got the paranoia out of the way, back to being excited! John sent me a message:
And congrats to Natalie. She honestly is, at the age of six, one of the best vloggers on youtube. (Also, Calvin is pretty amazing. His impression of me is the cutest event of my life maybe.) -John

Gosh I didn't think any of this would be happening 6 months ago!!!

Hope that you are all well, love and hugs -Debbie

Slight Color Change

Thought the blog need a face lift...well slightly anyway

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Guess who we saw last night!

After 15 years, Noiseworks finally returned to Adelaide and they rocked our world. Fantastic show! Still havent slept yet, poor Rob s at work! LOL Michael stayed with my parents as it was an over 18's gig. When we arrived at the soundcheck - Jon asked where Michael was and was disappointed that he wasnt there! After the show we chatted to Stuart Fraser for around half an hour, and he was more than disappointed that Michael wasnt there! He gave us his pick to nuture his interest in guitar and made us promise that we would bring him next time :) This morning when Michael came home to get ready for school he was very impressed :)

Guess what WE saw on the way home the other night!

Driving down Edward St after I'd picked up Jacob on monday night, I had to stop for what i thought was a dog slowly crossing the road (luckily there were no cars behind us, and luckily i didn't hit it!). It looked a bit funny for a dog, and I realised it was a Koala! How cool! It crossed the road in front of us then climbed up the tree. We pulled over and took some pics and hopefully you can see it!

Monty Python Lego

What more can I say - this is just brilliant!

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A couple of snaps from today. Michael is with Father Christmas at the Reynella Neighbourhood Pageant, Michael and Rob are at the Reynella Neighbourhood Fair. The Ocean shot is at Pt Noarlunga which looked stunning today. And Michael and I are at Pt Noarlunga on top of the bluff.

More from us...

Hi again, thanks for the pics Cherie! We certainly look forward to catching up with everyone for Christmas, it will be lovely!

Jacob also liked the idea of a kite and perhaps more train set stuff. Dunno bout more for sam... (I think they're pretty good on the DVD side of things). Seriously, they'll be happy with anything!

He has also enjoyed playing with toy cash register shop sort of toys too.

Here's some pics from us too (it's been a while!) Obviously these aren't the newest, NannyB was here in July! Most of the photos haven't made it to the computer yet so these will have to do. Enjoy! xox

Christmas Pagent pt1

Michael being arrested!















My favourite














Michael getting a hug!


















Up close.

Christmas pageant pt2

Rob, I mean Rob's favourite! ;)


















Atmosphere shot














Up close! Michael's favourite!












What did Michael think afterwards? That smile made waiting for 3 hours prior to the parade all worthwhile! Did I mention it was 34C, but Michael had the best idea - take our HSV umbrella, that kept us so nice and cool and shaded it was great! But we did go straight to the beach afterwards!

Us before going out last night

Christmas

Sorry to repeat the email I sent out to a Heth and Mum, but I thought I should post this online also for Deb's benefit!

Also all of you mentioned DVD's below. Please let me know if you want these, as obviously I can access these extremely easily! We do have 35000+ titles at work!

OK here is the email:


Hey there,

Hope you guys are doing well.

Looking forward to catching up with you guys on Christmas day, its certainly been a very long time hasn’t it! In regards to presents for the kids. I have a couple of things for them already, but I just wanted to get them one “special” gift also. Any hints would be extremely welcome J

If you need any ideas for Michael, his main passions at the moment are music (playing and listening), drawing, his DS lite, lego, the beach and exercise.

My grandma just moved into a nursing home, so he now has her new, very costly, electronic piano which he has taken a shine to, so perhaps if you can locate some easy sheet music for him to practice with that might be an idea? If not any art equipment or lego would be a good thing. In reference to exercise, he is obsessed with building himself up so even something like a gym ball and mat would be great (I dare say he could have a lot of fun with that! LOL). Or perhaps a cheapie MP3 player, as his was a real cheapie and is only 512kb, and died a death!

Anyway I will leave it in your capable hands!

We went out last night – Rob and Michael to the monster trucks at the Entertainment Centre with a few guys from his work, and a friend from my work. I went out with another friend from my work to a farewell party for a couple of guys I work with. It was the greatest feeling going out and getting dressed up and not feeling like the Goodyear blimp! LOL We got to bed at 2am, I have been up since 6, and we are off to the local Reynella Village Christmas pageant and neighbourhood fair in a couple of hours! Then its off to see my grandma, home to put up the tree and also do some work for Ezy’s. Our latest warehouse manager quit on Friday, so now that’s 5 warehouse managers in less than 2 years – you would think my evil CEO might get the point that he is demanding too much of his staff, but lets not go there!

Take care everyone, and I’ll see you soon!
Cherie
Xxxx

PS Rob is in the midst of another promotion, but that is his news to tell, but I figured he might forget to tell you! He is doing really well at PMP :)

Also a heads up that Michael is a size 14 (to be safe), incase you needed to know. He has heaps of clothes, but if you wanted to get something for him, I am sure an ACDC t-shirt would be appreciated or something of that genre! LOL His shoe size is a size 6 mens, so as you can see my baby is growing up! LOL

Anyway take care!
Cherie!
xxx

(who herself has dropped 24.5 kgs and 5 dress sizes - *does the funky dance of success!* LOL)

More Christmas ideas...

Our turn now... Really have no idea what Jacob and Sam would like! But i'll give it a go...

Jacob, unlike Calvin, is not at all into superheroes or star wars or spiderman or transformers or that kind of stuff. He really likes Dora and Diego at the moment, and is watching a bit of Charlie and Lola too. Still the Wiggles, not quite so much Bob, loves Peppa Pig. He likes drawing and colouring and reading and computer games and making music! He'd be a size 3 - 4 (4 to be on the safe side) and could probably do with more PJs. When he gets home from the shops i'll ask him what he wants and see what kind of response i get... (He said 'i know! some cars!' but not sure what he means by that!)

Sam is a very busy boy... he likes cars and trucks and trains and things. He loves watching Colin (whenever jacob lets him) and the Wiggles and Peppa and whatever else Jacob is watching (Colin certainly seems to be the current fave although i think we have most of his DVDs). He also loves music and books and loves playing outside. He's a size 1 in case anyone's interested! (but he's not short of clothes).

I better go... if i think of anything else i'll let you know! But i'm sure they'd be happy with anything :)

Hope you're all well, look forward to seeing you all soon, and Rob & Cherie we would also LOVE some ideas for Michael!

xox

Christmas Ideas?

I can hardly believe that it is almost the end of November already!!! And for the first year EVER I have yet to start my Christmas shopping (oh no). But unlike their unorganized mum, Calvin and Natalie have been thinking about Christmas for a while now. I thought that I would share with you some of the things that they would be very excited to see under the tree this year, in case you need any ideas.

Natalie:
Jewelry (Natalie is very keen for some more 'real' jewelry :)
Any craft accessories - cutters, scissors etc
Coloured paper, scrap booking stuff
Nice pencils, fancy textas
Any clothing to please be size 8, and she is still a pink princess girl
'Happily Never after' DVD
Craft books and/or story books
A pink diary
Photo frames (that can hang on the wall)

Calvin: (obviously with Calvin this could double as a birthday wish list too)
It is all about the superheros at the moment for Calvin. We have bought him a Spiderman dress-up. (Spiderman is his current big thing as Spiderman 2 is his fav movie)
Calvin has also begun to really get into lego. A big hit could be any spiderman or batman lego (we don't have any, so no fear of doubling up), and since seeing 2 minutes of StarWars in a shop he really likes StarWars lego, and we don't have any that is out currently, though that could be a safe gift too.
His wish list also includes:
Colin's Jesus Rocks the World DVD
Any transformers (we are hoping to get him Optimus Prime)
Pretty much anything Batman, Superman or Spiderman will be a hit
An airplane kite
'Over the Hedge' DVD (though mum is not too fussed if he doesn't get that :P)

Of course these lists are just suggestions and I'm sure that the kids will be happy with whatever. Mostly they are just very excited about seeing all (well, most of) of their family on one day.

Now in exchange for this insider information, I would love some hints about what Michael, Jacob and Sam are into and would be keen to receive. Please please please please. Thank you.


Love and hugs.

The Brave Policeman and the Robber

A film by Michael, Calvin and Natalie

Watch it here.

And for the subtitled version, watch that here.

Aunty Debbie :)

A post from Michael to Aunty Debbie

Could you please put the movie that me Natalie and Calvin did in Victor on the blog.

Thank you.

Happy Birthday Natalie

Hope you have a great day

Love from Aunty Heth, Uncle Al, Jacob and Sam

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Natalie's Party

Hi all. I would have put this up sooner but with all the storms around we have been without internet for most of the weekend (oh my goodness, Stuart and I almost died!!!), but we're back in touch with the world now.

Natalie had her birthday party on Saturday. She has made a vlog about it if you're interested, click here. In the end she had 8 little peeps to swim with her, one friend from school, a couple of other girl friends from church circles and all three Stotts. It was a great party because all we had to do was sit, drink and watch.
After the swim Amber and Hayden came back and made pizzas for lunch (yum) and had birthday cake and a play. Then Hayden went home and Amber stayed over for the night (yes, Natalie's first ever friend to sleep over). Was very cute, Natalie and Calvin went to sleep very quickly, Amber took a little bit longer, but she slept fine after she'd climbed into bed with Natalie!
The wind here was unbelievable Saturday (there is some video of it in Natalie's vlog).
Natalie survived her weekend though I suspect that she is not 100%. She has gone to school today but I foresee an early night (for all of us). Stuart has flown off to Adelaide for a meeting today and we'll pick him up from the plane at 5pm so that he can rush back to school here for a tea and parent thing! He's discovering that being AP makes you very busy, but he's enjoying the work. Calvin and I are still recovering from illness. I think Calvin is almost better, but with the party and leading church Sunday night I'm still a way off from being healthy.
At this stage we're planning to go out for tea on Wednesday (Natalie wants to go to a restaurant). Six years has come around very quickly.

Hope that you are all well.

Hi Honeys All

... not sure what happened there! Anyway, I'm here now! Life's got rather hectic lately, as I'm sure you can all relate to! I've learned this week that I get a lot more done when i leave my computer off occasionally, so I'm trying to just put it on every other day, deal with what's there, and turn it off again! So please forgive me if I don't reply as soon as you think I should!
I've been working a bit, helping Helen with catering at Toc H camp - first shift I made choc self saucing pud - for 70! And last night I made custard ... with a whole packet of custard powder! This week I've been mostly getting breakfasts and preparing rolls for them to take on their walks ... for 25 - just a little group! Helen and I seem to work well together, and of course I like pay day too!
I've also made a quilt to sell on the stall that will be at church on election day, so am pleased to have that done! Hard to believe the Walk is only a week away ... my Talk will be over this time next week! But still plenty for me to do!
Dad's well, and busy - trying to read more of those things he has to read before he goes to Brisbane in a fortnight, as well as everything else!
Hope you're all well, and school, kindy, uni, work, and life in general are all going as smoothly as possible! Love and hugs Mum

Brocks With Colin (and other Kitto pics)

Sorry I didn't post this earlier. Yay, we saw Colin and here is the evidence.
Thanks for a great holiday too.
:)

Our Holiday Film

Howdy folks,

just wanted to let you know that Debbie has put together a movie from our trip to Victor this week. Click here to watch it.

(I know I could embed it in the blog, but if you go to Youtube then you can sign in, rate it, favorite it, and subscribe to Debbie's videos.) It's important to rate videos because that gets them onto the first page in the category, which makes them more likely to be viewed by lots of people.

Happy Birthday Uncle Stu!

Hope it was a super day! Sorry we're not cool enough to make you a fancy video but we were certainly thinking of you and send warm wishes and hugs. It will be lovely to see you next week! Love Heth, Al, Jacob and Sam xoxoxox

Happy Birthday Stuart

Today is Stuart's birthday and his sneaky wife organised for John Green to make a video for him (and he actually did!!!). See! Also, the kids and I made a little video for Stuart here.

Not a lot of plans for the day. Rest is high on the agenda, but it should be a good one.

Here are also a couple of pictures from the Noonan wedding on the weekend.







Love and hugs to all.

Happy Birthday Nanna (Mum/Karen)

Hope that you have a fantastic day today.

Morning Heth. It;'s your birthday!

Hippy Heppy Hoppy Huppy Happy birthday. Hope that you have a good day. Hope you like the video. If you would also like to read well-wishes from strangers click here (well there was at least one comment when I looked, but this is youtube so there may well be more later. widcomebeboy is a nice Christian friend we've met from England) .

Hurray for being twenty something!

Love and hugs to you Heth.
Stuart, Debbie, Natalie and Calvin xxxx

(Wow, I've just noticed in the 'related' box there are LOTS of happy birthday videos for Heather. You are SO famous, SO popular. Have good day)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HETH!

Natalie and Calvin have made a movie

Last week Natalie wrote a story (with some ideas from Calvin) and on Saturday we went on location and filmed it. Both Natalie and Calvin supervised the editing and when it was all to their liking I put it up on YouTube to share with you all (click here to watch it now). Hope that you enjoy it, and please rate it if you did.

Sorry for all the weird nerdfighter references. I can see that if you aren't part of the brotherhood 2.0 community none of what I say (or the videos I make) will make any sense. So here I attempt a short explaination:
Two brothers, John and Hank Green, decided to stop texually communicating with each other for all of 2007, instead they post a video every other day to each other and they are quite entertaining. As a result now about 10,000 people watch them each day (including us) and the people who do that are called nerdfighters. Official definition of a nerdfighter is someone who instead of being made up of cells and organs is completely made of awesome. The brothers also have a website www.brotherhood2.com which has a forum called 'in my pants' where people can hang out and chat, its own wiki that Stuart has contributed too significantly and its own 'foundation to decrease world suck'. It is considered a nerdfighter's duty to decrease world suck where ever possible. I am now offically a 'secret sibling' to Hank and John - which just means that when they post a video, I post a video as a response (though it doesn't have to be related to what they talk about. Thus the strange videos that you will see over the next few weeks/months (if I stay that motivated). Hank runs an eco-website thing and John Green is an award winning young adult author and has said lots of nice things about our kids and the videos that we have made. Not sure if that has helped or made you more confused, but hopefully that will explain anything weird that you see in upcoming videos.


Until then love and hugs and enjoy the film,

Long time no Blog ....

Hi all! My cough is still with me, nearly 7 weeks on, and should be pretty good after that much practice! But I am feeling a lot better, more energetic, and more like me, so I'm pleased about that! Last week I made the banner for Kairos Outside, complete with dancing penguins, and I was very pleased with it! Sent it along to their last Training Day on Sat, and apparently it was well received, so that's nice!

We had a lovely day yesterday, starting with the usual excellent worship ... I do like our music! ... and the sermon was up to the usual high standard! Cuppas and chats, then we had lunch at Middleton Tavern with 16 of the usual folk - quite hilarious at times! To The Tin Shed at McLaren Vale and met Heth Al and the boys, and Grandad and Mrs Hogan and Mr Smith, 2 of our family's oldest friends! Mr S's daughter Helen was a good friend of mine, and died a few months ago, so I was thrilled that Grandad thought to bring them! Mrs H is a real darling, and for 30 years has told me I still look 15 .... I can cope with that! She certainly enjoyed getting to know some of our family a bit more, and I think we all enjoyed a lovely afternoon! Dad certainly enjoyed his long chats with you both, Rob and Stu!

Friday we went for our annual pilgrimage to our dentist at Salisbury, and made quite a hole in the bank a/c ... but I got 2 more of the discoloured fillings on the front of my front teeth replaced, and am very happy with the result! We had coffee and cake at Koorong and bought books and cards; I spent some time with Heth Al and the boys while Dad visited a couple of our old fellows at Flinders, then we came back here and had dinner with friends - very pleasant evening, especially watching the last quarter of the footy!

Saturday morning I went to the clinic here and had my moles checked out - got the all clear, so that's good! The Dr bulk billed, too, also very good! I had coffee with a friend, did some shopping, and that evening we went to a Film night at the church! We served home made burgers (chicken or beef) and hot dogs, including little ones in dinner rolls ... very cute! About 60 there, and we watched "Racing Stripes", which I now have a copy of, and I look forward to sharing with you all when you're here some time! It's very sweet, about a zebra who thinks he's a racing horse! One of the old dears Dad visited Fri died on Sat, so there'll be another funeral this week. Another of the real old stalwarts of Adare, so a big funeral again I dare say! We'd hoped to visit Granny on Wed, but will now try and go next week! We have cafe church on Sunday as well, at 5, so 2 services plus a funeral is more than enough for Dad for one week!

This morning I've vacuumed all the floors, and I've washed clothes, and caught up some diary and emails! Nearly time to start on the next banner, but I'm also keen to put together all those little Christmas redwork stitcheries I finally finished! I have the perfect red fabric for the sashings and borders, so just need the time and space and inclination! But first I MUST write some long overdue snail mail letters! Hope you're all doing well! Love the videos, Debbie, and hope you enjoy your time in Melbourne, Rob Cherie and Michael! Hope Jacob's feeling a bit better today, and that work was good this morning, Heth!
Love you all! Mum
By the way ..... how bout Christmas in Victor Harbor this year??! This is where Dad and I will be!

Are you interested in knowing how cute people think our kids are?

Debbie made a video for the birthday of John Green. (A Young Adult Author from America.) He posted a comment about it on his blog. It's now had almost 900 views, and people have been leaving the nicest comments.

Go here to see the video and the comments. You can find the blog entry at www.brotherhood2.com along with a bunch of videos that John and his brother Hank have made for each other.

Debbie has also been putting some of the other films she has made over the years up on Youtube, so you can watch them here. Some of them are quite clever.

Going... going... gone!

I know it's been like FOREVER since we've blogged but you know how it goes - you'll be pleased to know we're still here! There's so much that we haven't blogged (like NannyB's visit and Sam's birthday and perhaps even Cairns!) but I won't bore you with everything.

The biggest thing at present - I went back to work this week! After 7 years I've said goodbye to the agency and have joined the casual pool at the Repat. I had my 3 days of orientation (after not working for 14 months) and it wasn't as strange as i was expecting. Kinda like falling off a bike (or something) which is probably a good thing. I'll do about 2 shifts a week and will start with some 4 hour ones just to ease back in slowly and I certainly won't be doing 3 days in a row - was just a bit much and I was very glad to not have much to do today. Was great that Nanna could come and look after the boys (they went to care yesterday) but unfortunately she picked up a bug from Sam and from what i gather spent most of last night throwing her guts up. Sorry!

We've all been sick on and off for ages (like a couple of months) but the last 2 days i think we've been ok. It's just been one thing after another (and luckily one person after another) with colds and ear infections and tonsilitis and fevers and more colds and most recently gastro. Not been heaps of fun but for the moment we'll enjoy being healthy!

Think that's about all i've got for the mo. Need an early night tonight and I've got a new mag waiting for me. Huge birthday wishes for Cherie for yesterday (and Jo for today!) and big hugs and squeezes to all.

The Simpson Trek

I had the best time for 10 days (ending a week ago) crossing the Simpson Desert. The weather was excellent (north of Mambray Creek), the company was good (16 other blokes - mostly from Echunga UC or connected with them in some way), the food was more than adequate, and the scenery was beautiful.

I have some photos...

You may see some here eventually, but I took about 1500...

A desert dawn; crossing Big Red;

a view in Brachina Gorge; and a Simpson dune.

Cadelga water hole; and a tree at Cadelga (north of Cordillo Downs cattle station).