Bigger Appetite

Jazmin has graduated to 2 extra cubes of food per feeding now. She had porridge and apple for breakfast this morning and loved it. Justin tried her on green beand the other night and once she'd got over the initial taste of a new food she really liked them.

Justin's been really tired the past few days, so he ate and went to bed last night for about an hour and then did Jazmin's routine with her then went back to bed. I think it would have been good for him to have a sleep in this morning but he has an appointment, so couldn't.

A Creative Way To Shorten The Commute!

This was on Yahoo! News today:

RIYADH (Reuters) - Four Saudi women teaching in a remote village school have married their driver so they can live closer to work, Al-Watan newspaper said on Monday. The newspaper said the women from Al-Baha province in south-west Saudi Arabia were impressed with the man's "good morals" and decided to marry him and live together in the village where they teach -- avoiding a tiring daily commute.

They were married in a short ceremony, and have agreed to pay the driver a share of their monthly salaries, Al-Watan said. Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, while men can marry up to four women according to Islamic law.

Quidditch for mere Muggles

Our little Jazzy baby has decided that it's loads of fun to pull my hair every chance she gets! Time to tie it up or get it cut I think! With my reputation of having wacky and weird styles and colours, I haven't quite decided what I'll do with it yet. I have to wait till the purple's gone before I can really colour it again in any case.

If you've been looking for the links that are on our page, they're still on the left side, but you'll need to scroll down. It's been like this for a couple of days, and I haven't yet figured out how to correct it. I'm hoping that when the auto-archiving is done, the links'll come back to the top of the page. If not, I'll get serious about fixing it.

Justin has a big client meeting in Sydney today - hope it goes well.

Pete's left arm is in a cast...I'm sure that's going to be great for the summer holidays NOT!





These Tickers update every day...I love them, I should make a ticker for how many days I've been using tickers! I started using them with my pregnancy, but they are great for birthdays and anniversaries too. http://www.tickercentral.com


How to Play Quidditch at Home

A make-believe game for wizards can become a reality in your own neighborhood
by Bill Doherty

Quidditch on the Ground
Like many Americans, Jodi Palmer attended the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, with her son, Cody, and his best friend, Austin Shockley, back in December 2001. After the credits rolled, Palmer and her two movie companions couldn't stop talking about how much they'd love to play quidditch, the main sport in J.K. Rowling's wildly popular books.
There was one problem though. In the film, the make-believe game is played 50 feet in the air by young wizards with flying brooms and magic balls. But that didn't deter Palmer, a grade-school gym teacher at Windermere Elementary School near Columbus, Ohio. She decided to bring the game down to earth and transform it into something that mere "muggles" (Potter-speak for nonwizards) could play.

Realizing she was on to something, Palmer posted her version on a national Web site for physical education teachers. Now gym teachers across the country are incorporating quidditch into their curricula.

Want to bring quidditch to the next park outing or suggest it to your kids' gym teacher? Here's what you'll need to get started -- Quidditch 101, if you will.

Prerequisites:
It helps if the players have either read the Harry Potter books or seen the movies so they know the basic lingo used in quidditch. "Other than that, you need the ability to run away from an opponent or to chase one and the ability to throw and catch -- that's it," says Palmer.

Materials Needed:
One foam soccer ball (quaffle); 4 to 8 solid-color foam balls, each about 8 inches in diameter (bludgers); 1 small super-bouncy ball (snitch); and 6 hula hoops (goals). The hoops need to hang about 6 feet off the ground from a soccer net crossbar, tree branch, or something similar (three at each end). Each team should wear same-color shirts.

Rules:
To begin the game, 8 to 10 players per team are assigned positions. If more kids want to join in the fun, additional players can easily be added. Here's what the positions do:
Chaser: Three to four per team. Chasers are offensive players similar to forwards in soccer. They try to throw the quaffle through one of the hoops to score 10 points.
Beater (or Tagger): Three to four per team. They use the bludger to tag out chasers and the seeker. The beaters are defensive players, like soccer fullbacks.
Seeker: One to two people per team (depending upon your team size), who, when the snitch is released, try to catch it to score 150 points.
Keeper: This person guards the goals and tries to block any attempt to score. Each team has one keeper.

Game Play:
The game begins with a chaser from each team standing in the center with the other teammates positioned around them (much like a basketball game tip-off). The beaters stand back some, protecting their goals. The quaffle is tossed into the air by the referee (that's you) and the center chasers try to tip the ball to another chaser on their team. Seekers and beaters don't touch the quaffle.

How to Play:
Once the quaffle is caught by a chaser, she runs with it toward the three hula hoop goals. If she throws the quaffle through one of the opposing team's hoops, she earns 10 points for the team. Meanwhile, beaters are playing defense, attempting to stop the chasers from advancing or scoring by throwing the soft foam bludgers at them.

Once tagged with the bludger, the chaser must stop moving and try to pass the quaffle to another chaser on the same team (once she makes the pass, she can move again). If the quaffle is dropped or intercepted by a chaser on the opposing team, that team takes possession. When a goal is scored, players return to the center for a new tip-off.

At some point in the game, the referee will release the snitch. As the only players who can touch the snitch, this is where the seekers come into play. Just like in the movie, the snitch needs to move as much as possible, which is why a super-bouncy ball is needed.

If the snitch stops rolling or bouncing without being picked up, it goes back to the referee to be released again later in the game. The first seeker to catch the snitch scores 150 points for his team, the game immediately ends, and the points are tallied to determine a winner. Usually, but not always, it's the team that earned an extra 150 points by catching the snitch.
For more variations (such as using a broom to pass the quaffle), go to www.pecentral.com and enter "Quidditch" in the search field.

Enjoy!

What a weekend!

Feel like I've been away for a week!

Saturday: Went to accupuncture and then down to Pete & Katie's for a surprise party for Roland. (Justin's dad) Was all pretty good. Justy, John & Pete went for a skateboard and Pete has fractured his wrist/arm I think.

Sunday: Went to the meeting at Cabramatta and for lunch at Brian and Pauline Pollard's place. Emma (and unborn baby!) and Jono and Alex were down from QLD, and Steve and Rach and their kids, and Flave, and James and Rose were all there too. Wasn't a bad way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon!

I posted some more pics of Grant and Rachel's wedding on my Justin's previous post, which is availiable in the archives somewhere!

Hello World!

This is my first post!

My mummy is helping me but I am going to type some all by myself soon. I slept in till 10.00 this morning. Mummy thinks that's great and I can do it more often!

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Had a nice night out

In the mail reecently I received a commission cheque from some websites I sold last year, so we went out for dinner at Wyong Leagues. For $12 we had a large meal of beef, chicken & veggies plus pumpkin soup. Waddled out to the car feeling quite full.

Brought the skateboard to work today so I'm hoping the rain will hold off until afternoon.

Got a new projector at work, so I don't have to go upstairs and borrow the Micropay sales one - this one is exclusively for Handisoft sales. Woo Hoo!

This is a bit of a location joke - for those who don't know Macquarie Fields had civil riots recently when police tried to arrest the driver of a stolen car who killed the passenger when he crashed it into a tree.

Jazmin is an Administrator!

After quite a bit of mucking around, I've managed to get Jazmin a username and password to have her own profile for blogging! We'll log-in as her at some stage and she can type away!

Cool Babe

I twisted my back something awful yesterday, so spent the night in pain and the morning in accupuncture. Feel a bit better and having another session on Saturday.

We went to Montessori today, and Jazmin will be able to start in the new year. She was rolling both ways and loving the toy that was brought out for her.

Here's a few pics we took yesterday:


We enjoyed some time at Terrey Hills and had afternoon tea at this cafe.


Jaz in her new sunnies having cuddles with Daddy.

We drove around Palm Beach just to have a look: It's where Home & Away is filmed. No TV stars there yesterday though!!

Jazmin's Eating

Jaz has been trying some new foods lately, she'll be 6 months old at the end of this week so can have a wider variety of foods.

She had porridge and milk (formula) for breakfast yesterday and today and really seems to like that.

Jaz has also been eating rusks which she now loves. I found some vegetable rusks in Coles too, and I'll try them a bit later.

I did a big batch of foods for her on Sunday and they're in the freezer waiting for her to turn 6 months old! I made:
Zucchini
Broccoli
Spinach
Watermelon
Apple (more, she's eaten all the last lot I did)
Porridge
Beans

I am going to have to do more of her other stuff like potato, pear, banana, pumpkin and sweet potato as she's really getting through it.

Jazmin can have baby juice now, so I'll try it in her sippy cup (yes I did get a new one) and see if she'll take it that way.

OK, well I realise this post may not be of any interest to anyone, but at least I'll have it as a record for when I get round to doing some more scrapbooking!

Dee Why

We're in Dee Why at the moment, Justin has an appointment here.

I'm in an internet cafe, but the connection is abominably slow - like worse than 56K dial-up!

Justin's mum and dad were up on the weekend. We went for a walk up to extreme sports park at the back of San Remo because Justin wanted to get some pics of the new skate bowl they are putting in to post on the skateboard forum that he frequents. He's even got a place sussed out (and what bus to catch) for a skate when he's in Perth in a few weeks' time.

We went to Wallarah Bay Rec club for lunch and Mingara Leisure Centre for a swim afterwards.

Last night we watched the Shawshank Redemption - I'd forgotten what a good movie that is. Over the weekend was also watched Lord of the Rings - Return of the King, Bewitched -I thought it was kind of average but Justin liked it, and Miss Congeniality 2 which is OK for a sequel.

Justin put too much pressure on the bed frame (I think he bounced on it!) and bent it, so he is sentenced to sleeping on the side with the sag in it, and we'll have to get a new bed frame :(

Got some sunnies for Jaz - she's slowly getting used to keeping them on - she hates not being able to see when we have the muslin down to stop the sun getting in her eyes. She looks do cute in them!

Jazmin using the spoon

Justy here, feeling quite good despite the fatigue - I had quite a long day involving the pre-implementation meeting for one of our largest clients. After 4 hours, everyone is happy, conversion is planned for the next few weeks and I should be able to start using them as a refernce site very soon.

That's good because tomorrow I have a meeting with a firm that is #83 of the BRW Top 100 firms - not bad for the software that started our "just for the little guys".
Tomorrow I will post the results of our initial meeting.

Some kids were skating on the paved area at outside our building until the secco's chased them away. A couple of them were quite good - ollieing 4 or 5 steps and landing it!

Just a few shots of Jazmin using her spoon to feed herself - a follow on from Di's earlier post.

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- Jazmin just typed a few thoughts of her own there.

Click on images to enlarge them.

Sippy cup

Jazmin has been trying out the sippy cup the last few days, and is starting to understand how it works. The one we've got isn't very good though, so I'll be buying a new one tomorrow. It's a bit messy trying her with it and lots of times she'd rather play with it, but I guess that's just part and parcel. She ate baby cereal and banana for breakfast, and I think I've figured out that 2 cubes worth of food is enough, and 3 cubes makes her puke!

We had a massive hailstorm here last night, the hail was sitting on the grass, and although the stones weren't huge, I would've hated to have been out in it.

I had to go and pick up a parcel from Budgewoi post office yesterday and the wind brought with it a downpour - so Jazmin experienced being rained on for the first time in her life! I don't think she likes it any more than I do.

Gotta do the grocery shopping tomorrow, and that's always so much fun trying to fit everything into the trolley with the nappy bag in it and the infant seat on top. I usually shop at Coles and then put the non-perishables in the car then go back and do the Aldi shopping, and even then it's a challenge - but it's good because it takes most of the day and gets me out of the house for a bit.

Got the last week of the baby group at the community health centre this Friday.

Nostalgia

The Skateboard World ramp - late 80's.
If you don't recognise it, you weren't there.

Just Another Manic Monday + Weekend

Jazmin is getting used to the big car seat now, and seems to like being able to see things. She had carrot for the first time today and seemed to like it, but ate too much so has been puking in some form or other all day.

I went to return the baby capsule in Wyong and after a while looking for parking they were shut on Mondays! I was duly unimpressed at having to drive all the way down to Gosford!

I went to my beautician, and she didn't have time for me today, and the baker was all out of wholemeal rolls. I've got a thumping headache, so had a kinda crappy day today.

Anyway, I went to mother's walking group down at the San Remo outlet this morning and that was pretty good. One of the mothers there lives at Gorokan, but comes to San Remo every morning for a walk along the lake, so I'm going to join her some days if I feel like it. Anyway, next week's walk is same time, same place. I am glad we go at 8:30 am because by the time we get back, it's too hot!! We need to keep the babies out of the sun too, as most of them still have a few weeks to go before we can put sunscreen on them - usually it's made for 6+ months.

We had a good weekend - on Saturday just caught up on a bit of stuff around the house and Justin went for a skate at Lake Haven.

We watched Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King on Friday night and White Noise on Saturday night. White Noise isn't particularly good, and I'm glad we didn't pay exorbitantly to go and see it at the cinema - and possibly have to pay a baby-sitter too!

On Sunday we went to the combined weekend for the meeting at Lake Munmorah High and that was pretty good.

We went for a drive north after lunch, and checked out Newcastle Airport (so I could see how to get there) because I will have to pick up my brother James and my grandparents before the December Rathmines Bible School.

We had a look round Stockton - it's a really nice place - I can see why Real Estate is so expensive there.

After we got back, Justin went for a skate at Lake Haven, and we went for dinner at the Wallarah Rec Club - it was yummy and very reasonably priced, and Jazmin-friendly! (Very important these days!)

Busy Day

Today we all got up and took Justin to the station so I could have the car. I went straight to Lake Haven on the way back for Mother's Group.

Jazmin and I went to the older baby group (not a new baby now!) and discussed solids and dental care for babies. A couple of the babies are sitting up, but they are a bit older than Jazmin. She weighed in at 8.1 kg, so it confirms my theory that I do plenty of weight training!

Got most of the area - bed etc ready yesterday for James when he comes down in the holidays.

We've changed our lounge around again and moved the TV a bit - it all fits into a smaller area, but it's more cozy and gives Jazmin more room to play on the other side of the room.

Turns out Justin doesn't have to go to the conference tomorrow, so we've got the day to ourselves.

I've been playing Canasta on the internet with my mum, which is pretty cool.

Thursday

These post titles are becoming as imaginative as the Soviet urban planning department...hmmm.

Work is going well, I am pursuing several promising leads - one of which will be 50% of my March quarter budget if it comes off. Woo Hoo.

Had a skate today at Chatswood. Empty bowl + getting air off the quarter pipe is fun. I will have to go to Homebush in December to ride the new monster ramp.

Jazmin can roll over both ways now. We have to be vigilant with her because she rolls over in her cot and this can contribute to SIDS. We might need to invest in one of those lumpy pillow things that stop them rolling over. She was awake this morning when I got up so I went in to say "Good Morning" and she was stretched out in a backward arch, but almost on her tummy - very awkward. Got some infra-red pics which I will post when I get home - there is some problem with adding pics to the blog from work.

We were recently invited to Naomi King's wedding in NZ. Very disappointed that we can't go because we would love to spend a month or so in the south island. We will go later in the year once our finances are more under control.

Rollin' some more

Jazmin can roll both ways now at will.

Not much other news, but thought that was worth blogging.

Justin has to work on Saturday which kind of sucks.

Friday

Today Justin had an appointment at Ettalong, and was home by lunch time.

We both went and got our hair done and I'm at the library now, while Justin is skating on the ramp here at Lake Haven.

Jazmin is slowly getting used to the big bath now and seems less scared when we put her in it. We got a bath toy holder and a spout cover for the bath yesterday too, as well as investing in a new plug. The other one was so old it had gone slimy!

We've got nothing much planned for tomorrow except a bit of spring cleaning and a touch more sleep. Looks like it's going to rain up here - and of course it will because I hung the washing out!!!!

Keep rollin' rollin' rollin'

Ok, so this isn't a post about the Limp Bizkit song!

Jazmin has rolled over 4 times from her stomach to her back today!

Poor thing gave herself quite a bump on the head and a scare the first time, but almost seems to have it down pat now. She's been a little grump though, coz she wont got to sleep - I think she's had about 20 mins all up today!

New Food

After a couple of days on milk only, Jazmin has been hungry again.
She tried sweet potato for the first time today, and loved it! She kept looking at it and having her mouth open as soon as she had finished chewing! It was so funny because if I was slow, she grizzled at me as if to say "hurry up with that food". So she had sweet potato for mains and apple for dessert. She loves apple, and it's something she'll eat anytime.

Jazmin is almost rolling now, she's getting right up on her side, but hasn't quite figured out how to get her body over her arm.

Daylight Savings is great, means it's lighter when Justin gets home, summer is here!

Grant & Rachel's Wedding

What a fantastic day. New Pics added 28/11/2005.