12 Week Challenge Dinner

Last night was the 12 week challenge dinner in Brisbane for all Qld clubs. I hitched a ride with Jaana down to the apartments where most of the girls were staying. When we arrived, the rest of the people we were going with were totally drunk.

After I put on my new dress, my new shoes and my new handbag and felt rather snazzy. We headed off to Southbank (the convention centre) and got lost, stuck in one way streets and traffic jams. Who would have thought that Brisbane had peak hour traffic on Saturday night at 6.30pm? The roads were gridlocked, we then took another wrong turn which then headed us into more traffic snarls. After 1 1/2 hrs of driving, we found the convention centre carpark and arrived a little late but didn't miss much.

The dinner was a little bit '12 week challenge' for most people, meaning it was more sample size than dinner size but the dessert made up for that. We had coffee caramel something with caramel popcorn and it was so sickly sweet.

I didn't win but hey, i've lost 10.1kg and still going so i think i've won more than anyone realises.

Although, the night ended on a sour and sad note. Jayne, my beloved trainer, has resigned from the Goodlife gym. To say I'm shattered is an understatement as she's become a friend more than a trainer. Her last day is 18th December so i'm sure i'll be even more sad then. :-( Not sure who to choose as my trainer now. I can have Holly or Mel. Mel runs you around like a crazy lady and most people end up sick after her sessions (no thanks) or Holly has her little clicky group of people which were the one's that ended up totally drunk at the dinner. Dilemma. I just hope that i can pick the right one to keep me on my weight loss journey.

Photo's you ask of last night? I haven't downloadede them yet and Jaana and Jules haven't emailed them through. It's only 2.30pm so i'm not sure any of them will be up yet.

SURPRISE!!!!!!

It's been a busy 2 weeks since the last posting. We surprised many unsuspecting people in Newcastle on our recent visit. I just love surprising people. :-) Although, the 'man upstairs' forgot that we headed to Newcastle to cool down from the hot humid days we have here in Queensland. Unfortunatley the 45 deg days were WAY too hot for me and i'm sure everyone else that lived through the heat. I was thanking my lucky stars that Lisa had ducted air-con or we would all have fried.

As a result of all the weird weather, i was so cooked that i forgot to take many, if any photos so there isn't much to show for our first holiday in umpteen years. Luckily Tracey took a family photo so that almost doubled the amount of pic's for our trip.

Honeysuckle Shops for a yummy coffee

Kirrily also slept in Caitlin's room while we were away on the 'camping bed'. It was a blow up mattress only this one was fantastic. David and I had the same one in our room and we didn't wake up hours later to find we had no air in the bed and we were sleeping on the floor. The mattress stayed inflated the whole time.

Both the girls loved the camping bed and also running around being a little crazy together. This is our final goodbye photo with Kirrily and Caitlin.

So next time someone tries to organise a sneaky lunch, just watch out, it might be us coming to visit!!!!!!

First Ever Birthday Party for Hayley

The weatherman was telling me it was going to be an aweful day for the party. It was supposed to rain all day. The weatherman could not have been more wrong. It was a little bit windy but there wasn't a rainy cloud in site (it's been a bit like that since May).

I was running around like a mad woman for most of the morning putting final touches on the cakes, the food and whatever else i'd forgotten to organise the day before. At 9am, i raced over to the park to be on table minding duty. There is only 1 big table at Woodlands Park so i wasn't going to miss out. After 5 minutes i was totally bored out of my mind so started to set up.

By 10am most people had arrived, the food was being gobbled, and most of all, the swings for the kids were getting a major workout. The flying fox is always a huge hit for all the kids but it was so hot, the kids decided to build sandcastles underneath the steps instead.

Hayley and Kirrily have met some lovely new friends at the gym creche, and they all adore Lotti. She is a little 4 year old girl and Aaron is her little 3 yr old brother. Lotti's family have moved here from the UK recently and were over the moon to come to a party and let their kids run free. Lotti has lots of dolls called Hayley and Kirrily now. She's renamed all her dolls actually. This is Lotti at the party with Hayley looking rather pleased with the telephone that she gave her.

After many more sugar filled drinks, a bit more chocolate and of course more sugar (not me of course) I bought out the cakes. For kirrily's party i made a bunch of flowers with muffins and it was so much easier to hand out cakes rather than chopping a cake. For Hayley, i made party clown cupcakes. They have ice-cream cone hats with a party skewer sticking out the top. The top of the cone was also dipped in white chocolate and then rolled in sprinkles And they all had pink faces. I did have to try one of these as i'd worked pretty hard and if i can't enjoy 1 little cake on Hayley's birthday then i would have gone mad. (although this photo makes them look a little creepy).

A fun day, a lot of organising but i loved every minute and i hope Hayley did too. Although in years to come she probably wont remember a single bit of it until i show her these photos.

I did also make these goodies for her birthday. They are Tic Toc Teacups and Teddy Bear Racing Cars. I thought they were rather cute.

The Big First Birthday Celebrations

Saturday the 7th November was little Hayley's 1st birthday.

I woke up and went to Moffat Beach for a hard training session so didn't get to give the birthday girl a kiss before i left. We decided that it would be too much hard work to get her big birthday party ready for the saturday but had mum and dad, and Megan and Peter up to help us blow out the candle.

Hayley loved her presents but being a typical 1 yr old, she really loved the paper, the boxes and the sticky tape that the presents came with.

It was a great day, lots of yummy food and of course a very special cake. This cake wasn't the usual over the top numbers that i love doing. it was actually picked out by Kirrily out of the ABC Kids cake book. Kirrily had found this book at the Caloundra Library and suggested (or should i say told) me to make the Amy Teddy cake. For those not up on their ABC kids cartoons, Amy is one of the bears from Banana's in PJ's. I also wasn't going to make the whole teddy as i was on healthy eating and Hayley isn't going to demolish all that cake herself. David on the other hand might but i wasn't going to let him. :-)

12 Week Challenge - All Finished!!!!!

Today, Saturday, 14th November. It's weigh in day. i've done all i can to loose weight and tone up. I've even cut my hair, my toenails and finger nails (every gram does help).

I was booked in for 8.30am but got their early as i was pretty nervous. I had a goal in mind and I was hoping to achieve it.

I jumped on the scales and YIPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I've lost 10.1kg in 12 weeks which i was so excited about. I jumped off the scales and did a stupid girlie dance. Leo Sayer was also singing about 'feeling like dancing' so it felt appropriate but probably looked pretty silly.

So anyway, i'm happy with the results and here's to loosing a few more between now and Christmas.

The final count down

Tomorrow is my b'day but celebrating and eating lots of yummy things, going out for dinner and maybe the odd bite of cake or two is probably going to have to wait.

The final countdown has started and this Saturday is 'FINAL WEIGH IN' day. Therefore, i'm hoping for a tofu cake or even a head of lettuce with a candle will be fine. We are all off to lunch at Alfie's Moo Char & Bar for lunch on Saturday so 2 days late is OK with me.

Jayne has been working me super hard again this week but i've hurt my right knee really bad so have had a little trouble doing some exercises.

Today we did a card game. Hearts was push-up's, Clubs was burpee's, diamonds was mountain climbers and spades were squat presses and the Jokers card was just plain ridiculous. It was a 500m row (which made my knee hurt big time) so we swapped to a 1klm bike ride as fast as i could go. I didn't give up but i felt like i didn't have much left to give at the end. With 12 cards remaining in the deck, i nearly lost focus but finished with 16 burpee's straight up. i was more than happy to see the bottom of the deck of cards.

I"ll report back once the weigh in has taken place. I hope.

Busy October

Last month was extremely busy with gym, mountains to climb, and everything else that kirirly and hayley got up to.

We also went to the opening of a new set of swings and park in Pelican Waters. Saturday afternoon after my mountain climb earlier in the morning. 4pm was the official ceremony. Hot 91FM were there plus all the other Henzell's officials. The park was being named in honor of JR Ford hence the name JR Ford Park. There was free sausage sizzles, chips, drinks, frozen sweet ice things and my favourite, the free coffee van lady. mmmm what a delicious cup of coffee it was too. Kirrily had 2 frozen ice things (i think they were called snowy cones) with loads of sweet syrup, a small bag of chips and a popper. What more could a little 3 year old want. There was something else - swings, and loads of new ones.

We spent a few hours there before heading back with a very very tired little girl.

We've also been building a new garden (and drain) across the back fence of the yard. I dug the lillipilli's out, that were here when we bought the house, and it's been left go since then. We've finally started digging it out, building the drain and putting up a barrier to stop the neighbours water pouring into our yard. It's almost complete. We have bought several fruit trees to put in including a mango and nectarine. yum!!!!!! You have got to love living in Qld when you can plant those. Kirrily wasn't going to miss any of the action so got in with the spade to help Pop dig.

And of course, we've been swimming. After a huge flogging at the gym, i'm usually glowing bright red and can't cool down quick enough. What better way than a swim in mum and dad's pool. Kirrily didn't want to go to the gym creche, she just wanted to go swimming and practice what Miss Davina had taught her at swimming lessons. Sure enough the pool did cool me down. It felt freezing as i was sooooooo hot. It was 23 deg but i was just being a woos. What a great way to fix those tired, aching, over used.....(i could go on) muscles.

November isn't going to be any less busy. With loads of birthday's and then not long after that, the preparation for Christmas, it will be New Year before we know it.