Term 1

It seems crazy to be writing about Term 1 when Term 3 is about to start,  but I wanted to do a quick blog catch up as I know I'm going to forget things if I don't record them. 

This year was a milestone for the boys as there is one at Uni, one in college (Year 11) and one in high school (Year 7).   The boys were dreading their first day of school, after a lovely summer break. It's always weird seeing my boys go off to Year 11 and 12 not having to wear a uniform. 

Harri was nervous about starting college, but settled in pretty quickly.  He says he still misses high school and seeing the same friends every day, but he's made a lot of new friends at college as well.  

When Kobe was in primary school he used to always say 'I hate school' which I thought he was just saying, but he often woke up with 'I feel sick' and just really didn't look forward to going to school. 

Now that he's in high school he's enjoying school for the first time ever. He's also made lots of new friends and loves all the different classes, and having different teachers. Towards the end of the term  Kobe was happy to be asked to be a part of the Grade 7 leadership group.  

It was so good catching up with my cousin Emily and her family more over the summer and getting to know her kids and husband Aaron.  I wish it didn't take the death of Jarom for us to get sorted to see each other more.  We went with them to one of our favourite restaurants and were glad that they liked it too. 

Sophie was like Kobe and loved getting the food off the train and sending it back to the kitchen. 

At the beginning of term I went on a full day excursion to Hobart with the grade 5 and 6s from school.  We left at 7am and got back at 8pm.  It was one of the hottest days ever, and we were all melting, but it was an awesome day.  We went to Mt Wellington, walked across the Derwent Bridge and ZooDoo.  The group that I was with were very lucky and all got to feed the lions.

The kids loved being able to handfeed the kangaroos and deer. 

Jay was excited about the Basin Concert which then turned into the 'Basin-ish Concert' thanks to Covid restrictions and having to move the concert to a different venue.  He asked me if a few of his friends could come and stay as they were also coming to the concert.  When I told him that was fine, he cracked me up when he said 'they're all girls'. 

I was excited to meet some of his friends which he had talked about for the past year.  When I got home from work they had already left to go to the concert, but had left me a bunch of flowers and this note on the table.  I knew straight away that they were going to be lovely :) 

Erin and Jay haven't been going out for about 18 months now, but they're still really good friends so she also came and stayed with the girls for the night.  I met them all in the morning and it made me so happy to know that Jay had such lovely friends. 

Jay came home for the Easter weekend and the weather was so beautiful for it.  On Good Friday we went for a quick walk at Fern Glade Reserve near Burnie, and then went and had lunch on the beach. 

When Chrish was down a month before, he and Mum went to Sisters Beach. Their photos looked beautiful, so I decided I wanted to go there during the holidays. It was such a beautiful beach and reminded me of Binalong Bay.  

Kobe ended up staying at Mum's after Easter on his own, for some of the holidays. He absolutely loves staying with Grandma and she spoils him rotten when he is there. 

My sister in law Becky and the kids came up during the holidays, and one day during the holidays I met them and my sister in law Steph and her kids and Mum and Kobe at Tasmazia. 

Kobe often gets bored as he's mostly at home on his own now that the boys are older, so it's always lovely for him to hang out with his cousins. 

One night we went to watch a live NBL game with Eden and Steph and the kids and Mum and went out for tea first. 

My friend Lynne often goes to Hobart for work for a night or two and because it was holidays, she suggested that I joined her.  At first I didn't think much of it, but then we talked about it more and I realised how fun a girls' night away would be, even if she had to work for most of the time.  So I organised for the boys to stay at friend's houses and joined Lynne on her work trip. It was lots of fun as I got to go and spend time with Jay (and met his new girlfriend), got to go shopping without the boys bugging me, went out for tea with Lynne after she had finished work and caught up with my friend Sarah for brunch before coming home. 

In the last week of the holidays my sister in law Steph and the kids came into town and we joined them at Airtime and Riverbend Park then went to get some lunch. 

We thought we'd try out a Japanese place that we'd seen called Gatsu Gatsu.  

Kobe was excited to try some Japanese soda.  We then realised that next door were some Japanese style sleeping pods and Kobe just about freaked out in excitement. He kept saying how sleeping in one of them was on his bucket list, and kept asking if we could stay there sometime. I tried to put him off, and was silly and suggested that maybe he could do something like that for his birthday. I thought he would forget about it....that did not happen! 

We loved Term 1 holidays because for the first time we had a three week break, because Easter fell during those holidays and I really needed the beak after a crazy busy term. 

Everything always seems better in summer

It's been a very long time since I blogged, and right now we are in the middle of winter , so it's hard to remember warmer days.  As I was going through my phone to clear off old photos, I found lots of photos from summer and it reminded me of how great it was. 

Life can be really hard, but everything always seems better in summer. I dread Christmas, but once Christmas is over I really start enjoying summer.  It was nice having everyone home for a little while as Jay came home from Uni for a few weeks, I'm a lot less stressed as I'm not at work every day, and the sun and warm weather always just makes me feel better.  

Since my cousin Jarom passed away  the one great thing that has come out of it is that we've spent more time with my cousins. During the summer we caught up quite a few times either picking cherries at Levi and Louise's house with other cousins, and caught up at the beach and Pop's river. 

Kobe lived in his Tassie boys hoodie for months :) 

Fun on Uncle Kim and Auntie Deidre's buggy. 

Now that the boys are older they don't want to spend as much time at home, so it's always extra special when we are all somewhere together.  Thanks to Covid there was no Falls Festival this year, so Jay was home for New Years Eve.  

A heap of people camped on my brother Eden's block over the summer holidays, and for New Years Eve we had a traditional maori hangi.  My sister in law Becky's family knew what they were doing and  had a very professional set up. 

The food was incredible and some of us went night swimming afterwards and we we all sat around the bonfire till midnight. 

Mum and I always go and have a platter at the Conservatory during the summer. 

One day I dragged the boys to Narawntapu National Park to check  out the gulch and also Badgers Beach lookout. 

Kobe and I were the only ones brave enough to go in the water (and it  was very fresh!). 

Even though my Nan and Pop have passed away and none of the family own the river flats that they used to have, it's still a really special place to me.  We don't have access to the swimming hole anymore, but we went to swim at the bridge a few times over the summer.  

The warm weather held out into March which meant we still went swimming there on the weekends, once school went back. Chrish came down for a week in March, and joined us at the river one day, as well as my cousin Emily and Louise and the boys. 

We didn't risk going away to the mainland this summer because of Covid so the holidays seemed extra long. If  I wasn't at the beach or the river, I was at the Gorge.  Kobe and I practically lived there all summer.  Some days we would pick up his friends and other days it would just be the two of us. 

The water is always pretty fresh, but I love it. It makes me feel alive and my reward at the end is to sit in the sun (usually with a book). One day my cousin Emily messaged me to ask if I was at the Gorge (and of course I was!) so they came up and joined us.  

Another time my cousin Toni and her family met us up there.  

We had the best beach day at Bicheno the day before Australia Day. Harri was down there so we drove to pick him up so he would be home for Australia Day (the anniversary of when Aaron passed away). It just happened to be the same day that my Uncle Kim, Auntie Deidre and cousins were down there, so we had an awesome day with them. It was so hot (like 32 degrees which is unheard of at the beach in Tassie) and there was no wind. The waves were incredible, and we just spend the whole day going in and out of the water. 

We spent Australia Day at Hawley with some of my cousins and Mum.  It was actually a harder day than I thought it would be this year, and I was glad when it was over. 

One of the best things about summer was catching up with old friends who I only see every few years (and some more regularly). My friend Naomi and I grew up together, but she lives in Adelaide now but she's one of the kindest human beings you would ever meet.  Every few months since Aaron died she has sent me a card in the mail, just to say hi and let me know she's thinking of me.  I told her I'm a terrible friend as I'm nowhere near as thoughtful as she is, but I'm grateful to have a friend who is so thoughtful.   

Rachelle and I also grew up together, but she lives in Melbourne now. It's always lovely to catch up with her.  She's a psychologist so she's always great to chat to. I'm sure she thinks I'm crazy ;) 

I catch up with these girls a lot more regularly, and we are all so busy which makes it hard to work out a night to get together. It's a lot easier to find a time during the summer.  It's very special having such good friends who I have been friends with since Kinder (and Year 11).  

The boys talked me into taking them to a Big Bash cricket game over the summer holidays, and it was actually really fun.  Harri almost took a catch in the crowd.  It freaked me out for a second, because I have a thing with the boys that if they ever catch a ball, I said I would give them $100, just for a bit of fun.  I knew my money was pretty safe, but the ball actually touched Harri's fingers so I thought my money was gone for a second! 

Harri was sad to leave high school because he had a lot of friends who are still there this year, while he's in Year 11 and another one of his best mates got an apprenticeship, so they aren't going to school with each other anymore. He had lots of fun fishing with him one day and was sending me pics of his catches. 

Before school went back we had heaps of fun at the Ulverstone Waterslide with some of my cousins and Uncle and Auntie. We had some crazy trains going and there were lots of laughs. 

One of the most exciting (and stressful!) things over the summer was getting our bathroom renovated.  It was very old when we bought the house and it started leaking, which meant we couldn't put it off any longer.  I was so lucky to find some lovely builders who were awesome and they did a great job. Now the rest of the house seems so old and run down.  I need to save up to get the rest of the house done now. 

We love our new bathroom. 

When Chrish came down in March we headed back to our favourite place (the Gorge) for a walk one night.  He snapped this photo of Kobe, which was a re-enactment of one that he took of Jay years ago (and I can't for the life of me find the photo to link it to).  

While Chrish was down he got our butts into gear, to finally help Mum clear our her storage container from when she moved 6 years ago. 

Unfortunately a lot of the stuff was ruined from moisture and a lot had to be thrown away, but we found lots of old treasures.

We found the old dress up box and all decided to try something on.  It was such an emotional day (especially for Mum) but it was such a fun way to end the day off and we had lots of laughs. 

We had a game of tennis with Chrish before he left. We will just say that we were all pretty bad!

I wish summer didn't have to end as it's always the easiest time of the year for me. I'm sure just the warm weather helps my mood, and I often wonder why I live in Tassie but could never leave our awesome state.