"For the love of God......

.....please, PLEASE choose another theme for your birthday Thomas"

This was my plea that fell on deaf almost 4 y.o ears. I suggested a range of fantastic and equally impressive party themes such as pirates, cowboys, Curious George, Tom & Jerry, underwater.....but NO. And not just a no. An emphatic, serious, "I can't believe you are suggesting something other than dinosaurs" NO.

So dinosaurs - for the third year in a row - it will be. Sigh.

The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Tom, what do you want to have for your birthday party this year?"
Tom: "Dinosaurs"
Me: "Don't you want something else?"
Tom: "No"
Me: "What about pirates?"
Tom: "No"
Me: "what about Tom and Jerry"
Tom: "NO!"
[continue on with me suggesting other themes always answered with a NO.]

a brief silence ensues...
Tom: "Mummy, you know, you don't have to make a T-Rex cake"
Me: "What do you want?"
Tom: "Well you could make a Kronosaurus cake instead"
Me: ?????????????
[insert me rushing to one of the many MANY dinosaur books we have here to see what a Kronosaurus actually is. Turns out, it is this monster underwater aligator like thing with flippers. Oh yeah, and it was NASTY.]

A couple of days later I mock up an invite to his party. I found a Jurrasic scene, which has numerous dinosaurs on it, on the web and I put it on the invite along with the details. Tom happens along and sees the trial version.
Tom: "What's this?"
Me: "Well, it might be the invitation to your party. Do you like it?"
Tom: [thinking and studying the invite closely] "There aren't any T-Rex's on it"
Me: "Well what's that?" [me pointing to what I believe looks like a T-Rex]
Tom: "Mummy, that's not a T-Rex, that's an Allosaurus" [with a look of contempt]

Needless to say, that version never really saw the light of day. So here is the final version that has been given the all clear from the little paelentologist. I gotta say, we are getting remarkable use and value out of all of the dino decorations!


And do you know what was the first animal sound Bridie made? Yep a dinosaur roar! Could be a cycle starting all over again.

Tom actually enjoyed being photographed for this. He even managed to pretend he was "standing" under the dinosaur!

Just a quickie...

I have just updated the farm website with:

1. new farm staff member
2. updates on the calves born from last years flush program
3. another flush program
4. things that are happening on farm right now

I really must get off my rear and get some more photos on the site. I really have been taking a few of late.....

Some 'heart stopping' news (pardon the pun)

That really is a poor choice of a post title. But it is very apt. Over the past couple of weeks, Mark's dad (Alan) has suffered a number of heart attacks or heart issues. It all stemmed from a bit of a blockage in one of the arteries, but after having a couple of stents put in, he developed a clot which put him back into hospital again. Since, he has found out that there is another clot and the doctors are madly working to dissolve it so he is 'fit for duty' (so to speak). In reality, I think both Mark and Judy will be keeping him wrapped up in cotton wool for a while (much to his horror no doubt!!).

So he has spent the better part of the past 2 weeks in either Shepparton, Royal Melbourne, Colac or Geelong hospitals. And for a man that rarely admits to being unwell, I'm sure that this has been an arduous experience for him.

Mark has been to see him today and reports that he is in better spirits than he had been, and was looking more like his old self. Most welcomed news!

Ok...farmwise, what else has been going on?

We are well into calving now with almost a full calf shed. I am doing none of the rearing this year as Mark felt he could manage it. And so he has. I miss it though. As of yesterday, we have had all our recip cows calve (the ones that were impregnated with embryos from the flush last year) and we ended up with 4 bulls and 3 heifers. One of the heifers is huge and is a potential show cow herself.

We welcomed a new staff member to our business in the past 2 weeks. Terry Baulch is a 16yo student who is going to be doing some weekend milkings and the occasional week day milking. He is also doing his work experience with us and possibly in the future will complete a school based certificate II traineeship. We hope that Terry enjoys his work with us.

We have just reviewed some text for an article that is being written on us for a breeder profile for the Holstein Australia magazine. I have to admit to being a bit embarassed about it as we have not been in the registering game for very long and there are heaps of breeders out there that also deserve recognition. But we agreed and we took some photos last night to accompany the article. Surprisingly, Tom was very accomodating and took some lovely pictures. We got a few rippers of him with one of the ET heifers who's name he informs us is 'Kelly". So Craiglands Megaman Kelly it is!! This is one of the shots of him holding on to her. Maybe he will be interested in the show circut after all????? (me smiling to myself here!) .

In a couple of weeks we will welcome the Azzopardi family to our farm as part of the Farm Day activities. They hail from one of the western Melbourne suburbs and I'm not sure how much they've been on farms before, but an email from them the other day tells me they are looking forward to coming. They also have a 4yo boy named Thomas!!! LOL. It may get confusing over the weekend!!!

Calving season has started

We are into calving season 2009 already. From memory, we have about 20+ calves already in the shed. So far, Mark is rearing them all by himself. This will last for as long as we get a sick one and he wants me to take over!! Seriously, I miss doing them, but the super early morning starts for me last year just about killed me. Burning the candle at both ends and all that. Hopefully though, this year, I will be able to take the kids over with me at a later time in the morning (rather than 4am like I did last year). I'm not 100% convinced that Tom's concentration and interest will last the time that I need to be over there, but we'll give it a crack and see how it goes. But for the meantime, Mark is happy to plod along with the babies.

And today we had a bit of excitment! Remember the flush program we did on our show cow back in August? No? Well, suffice to say, one of the recip cows calved today. And it's a bull! LOL. Bugger it though.... I'm keeping it. This is the first of the bull calves to be reared this year. Fingers crossed that the remaining six recips give us some heifers.

We are gearing up for 'Farm Day' where a city family comes and spends the better part of a weekend with us. This year, the dates are May 30 and 31. We haven't got our city family's details yet, but I would guess that they will have kids, as the organisers try and match us all up.

My Stampin' Up! business is starting to pick up a bit of speed. I have a number of workshops in front of me, a class that has been confirmed, and a couple of customers that may turn into long term clients. I attended the SU! convention in Canberra last weekend and I have to say that I have returned all excited and inspired! I can't wait to get right into it. This coming Friday night, I have a 'party plan' evening at a local kindergarten. A number of direct sales companies will be there basically showcasing what they have as far as products and what they can offer prospective hostesses. Fortunately for me, we have a lot of 'hands-on' stuff that tends to capture the attention of bystanders. I am hoping to secure at least one workshop booking from the evening.

First shoes

Just a quick update. This is Bridie in her brand new dress and wearing - for the very first time - SHOES!!! And just how damn cute are they?? Black patent leather shoes. A staple of every little girls wardobe!! LOL.

Bridie has been properly walking now for about 5 days, and this photo of her was taken on our way to her cousin's birthday party. As we were going to be out and about, I figured she'd better have some shoes now. Bridie was fascinated with them and I had trouble getting a decent picture of her because all she wanted to do was look at the shoes.

Such a girl!!!

VALE: Bluey

Very sad news today from Craiglands. One of our dogs was killed this afternoon when the milk tanker ran over him. Poor Blue. It was only a matter of time though...Mark had pulled him out from under the wheels of the stationary tanker a number of times. In the past year, he has become deaf and almost blind. He wouldn't have known what hit him (literally).

We were only talking about Blue the other day and wondering how he was going to make it through another winter. Arthritis, poor bladder and bowel control, his senses dimming (or dimmed)...we really were facing having to make a difficult decision in the very near future.

Our concern now shifts to Tottie who is Blue's litter mate (sister) and has been with him for always. Her health is also not 100%, so we now watch her to see how she will react to him not being by her side constantly throughout the day.

Mark just came in from burying Blue. We haven't mentioned anything to the kids yet, but Tom already understands about birth and death in animals, so I don't think he'll take it overly hard. After all, Blue was a very old dog to Tom.

RIP Blue.

Graceful Impressions

My new business - Graceful Impressions - is up and going! This is my new business name and it is derived from Bridie's middle name (Grace).

This business is predominately the face of my Stampin' Up! demonstratorship, but in the future may be used to extend my business dealings.

I will be keeping a seperate blog/website of all things "Graceful", and you can read about it here. On this site, I will be doing a few things:
1. SU! specials
2. my own personal specials offered on SU! products
3. promotion of SU! products
4. tutorials and tips on how to make the most of your stamps
5. sketches and templates for you to use
6. regular pics and product listing of various projects I make
7. calendar of upcoming events
8. arranging a regular newsletter to be sent out either via email or mail

I can offer a range of services, starting with a party where you and a number of your friends/family get together for a couple of hours to have a bit of fun, make some cards and/or scrapbook pages and have a lot of laughs. Of course, the hostess of this party is able to earn free stamps and products to either kickstart her new passion, or to add to her existing stash!

I am also going to offer a regular workshop or event where for a nominal fee, people can come and make a range of paper crafts, learn different techniques and have full use of my proucts. This also leads into offering "Stamp Clubs" which I will be discussing in detail on the Graceful blog.

Of course, I can also accept orders from anyone by phone, email or in person that wants to order some of the vast SU! range, but doesn't want to hold a party.

So bookmark my site (http://www.gracefulimpressions.blogspot.com/) and pop over regularly to check what I have on offer. Orders can be sent right around Australia (via Aust Post) and are delivered from the warehouse directly to you. This means, less waiting time for you to get the stamps and product that you ordered!

If anyone wants any further information on any of the SU! products (including the newly released 2009- 10 Ideas Book and Catalogue), drop me an email at sam.simpson@bigpond.com