A couple of months ago I realised it had been a long time since I had blogged, and to be honest I felt like I had probably blogged for the last time.  Over the last school holidays Kobe read a lot of my old posts, and it reminded me of how important it is to record our memories somehow, even if it's once every six months or more.  Kobe and I often talk about our trip to Queensland in January, and I couldn't not blog about it. It was the first time we had all been away on a holiday to the mainland for a while (including Mum) and we had some extra special surprises up our sleeves for ..read more

For many years my brother Chrish has talked about moving from Sydney to the Gold Coast.  We never really thought it would happen, so we were pleasantly surprised a few months ago when he sent a message to the family group chat saying he was about to put his house on the market, and was going to move to the Gold Coast.  His best mate and his family live there and also some of our cousins which he is close with, and of course the weather is beautiful, so he finally decided to make the move. He sold his house in Sydney within two days of going on the market and then went up to look for ..read more

So far this school year has been crazy busy, and very stressful.  It's been such a messed up school year with Covid and the flu as so many students and teachers have been away at different times, we've had to wear masks (up until a couple of weeks ago), and we've been so busy with planning interpreted Parent Teacher meetings and then having to reschedule so many because of illness.  I've also had to plan extra on top of my usual teaching in case we needed to go on class.  Illness hit many teachers hard last term and I ended up getting the call to teach on class at my school for ..read more

Term 1 has been interesting with the Tasmanian borders opening and Covid arriving in full force. We weren't really sure what the term would look like on the first day of school as we have had to learn to live with Covid.  This year Harri is in Year 12, Kobe is in Grade 8 and Jalen started doing his Masters. I forced the boys to do the usual first day of school photo :)  Kobe was excited to be appointed as vice Junior House Captain for Allen house early in the term. He is following in Harri's footsteps as he was also Junior and Senior House Captain at high school.  The first we ..read more

Time is a weird thing.  Ten years can feel like forever, but also like it was just a few years ago. On Australia Day it was ten years since Aaron passed away.  It used to feel like he could just walk in the door at any time and things would be the same as they always were, but over the last couple of years it's starting to feel like he's never been here. I feel like I've been a single mum forever and it's getting hard to remember when I wasn't bringing the boys up on my own.  He's missed out on so much of their lives, and so much has happened in my life since he passed away.&nb ..read more

For Kobe's birthday back in June I gave him tickets to see Hamilton in Sydney.  Unfortunately we had to cancel the trip twice because of Covid/travel restrictions back in July and October. We were so disappointed as both of us were looking forward to seeing it.  I gave up thinking we would get to Sydney to see it, as it finishes in Sydney in February and moves to Melbourne.  The borders to and from Tasmania finally opened up on December 15th but I still wasn't keen on travelling.  There is so much Covid in Sydney and I was worried about getting it, plus you had to be teste ..read more

I was trying to figure out what to get my Mum for her birthday, and then remembered us chatting about going to the west coast of Tasmania sometime.  I've never actually been and either has Mum. As a child I remember Mum always saying 'I hate the west coast' which is why we never went, but now that we talk about it, she says she hated the idea of the long drive to the west coast.  We are very spoilt with everything being so close in Tasmania so anything longer than a 3 hour drives, seems too far!  I rang her last week to tell her that I'd booked a night in Strahan and a cruise o ..read more

Dear Aaron When I think about how it's been almost ten years since you died, my mind finds it hard to comprehend that you've been gone for so long and that we've been through so much without you here.  The other day the boys and I were talking about all the things that you've missed out on and how much the world has changed since you died. It's only been ten years, but so much changes in ten years.   Jay and I were talking about how there's been so many Marvel and Star Wars movies that you would've loved, that you will never see.  You would love all the streaming services ..read more

Two days before Christmas, Aaron would've been celebrating his 49th birthday.  He only got to celebrate 39 on Earth.  I actually look forward to his birthday as it's always a fun night with friends.  We met Simone and the kids and Tim and Helene and their kids at Punchbowl Reserve for tea and a play.  There was a huge game of cricket going on between a group of adults. It was a heap of Indian men against others and they were so intense and hilarious, so it gave us a few laughs.  As we were leaving one of the guys spoke to us and said he hoped that they weren't too ful ..read more

It only seems like it has been a couple of years since Jay started Uni, so it's hard to believe that he's just graduated with a Bachelor of Media specialising in Screen.    I still remember clearly the day that we dropped him off at Christ College (his Uni accommodation).  I was trying to be brave for him, but there were tears from all of us as we drove home and left him in Hobart.  During his first year he came home pretty much every weekend.  He stuck to himself and didn't socialise at all and didn't get to know anyone down there.  Over the last two years he ..read more