I'm pregnant!!

This will be old news to many - but I haven't blogged about our exciting news....So we are going to have a baby boy who is due on Australia Day (Jan 26th)!!! Stephen, Harry and I are so ecstatic. Here is our 3D scan we had a few months ago - it still has a bit of an alien look about him but you get the idea.
The pregnancy is going well with the familiar nausea/tiredness in the first trimester, feeling great in second and now in my third feeling huge, not sleeping well and peeing every half hour. This baby is finding me eating all kinds of diary products (with Harry it was porridge - a bowl full every day!) except the ones I'm not allowed too - you know all the good stuff like - brie, fetta, blue vein, soft serve ice-cream :(
Anyhoo, we are all doing well and Harrison is really into chatting away to the baby and wants us to call him, Nigel (after his hero on Prehistoric Park!!) which we flatly refuse - sorry to all the Nigel's out there!!!

It has been too long!!!

Well it has been ages since I have blogged!!! So many photos to paste up here and so much news....

Where to start, ummm... Here are some photos from our recent (well not really, it was back in July) holiday to the Gold Coast, Queensland. You see every year, I go a bit SAD (seasonal affected disorder) as Melbourne's winter is too drab and dreary for sunny me. So we head over to Queensland for a bit of sunshine to warm my bones.

This first picture is when we went whale watching - this was an amazing experience. The first 10 minutes was peaceful enough going through the canals but once we hit open waters - WOW - does it get choppy!! I was hanging on and bear hugging Harry so that we didn't go flying around the boat. But then when we were out there - WOW - the whales and dolphins were amazing sight. The sheer size of these amazing creatures. Harry throughly enjoyed it and is smitten with humpback whales and will often be singing the haunting notes of a whale under water.

This next photo was taken up from Q1 which was very cool but I did get a little nervous when Harry ran up to the window and started banging on them (yes, I know that they are thick glass that stands up to whatever people can dish out) but we are up awfully high!!)

This photo is at a yummy Greek restaurant just across from the beach and Harry was in a kissing mood - moment captured by Stephen! It was one of the best Greek meals that I have had in ages - I realised tat Greek is probably my favourite dining cuisine - not to mention that it totally caters for vegos that eat seafood and I just LOVE baklava (not sure about the spelling)

The last photo is proof that the weather was gorgeous and that we did get down to the beach most days - around the early 20C most days. This photo has Ralph and Morgan in it too (friends that we stayed with for a few days - thanks guys! You're awesome and we so appreciated it, especially the early 5am run to the airport, Ralph - you champ!!)

As you can see we had a great time and we will be back again next year.

It's getting late now, so I will sign off but I will get around to blogging again as I do enjoy capturing my sooo blessed life and sharing my joy with the cyber world. Cheers for now, Lisa

Movie Review - Music & Lyrics

Had a night to myself and wanted a 'chick flick' so Music & Lyrics fitted the bill.....however, it is a very shallow, nothing much new, and just a few laughs. I know everyone says "well it is Hugh Grant and he only plays one role - Hugh Grant". Yes, but he can be adorable in that role (think "Love actually" and "About a Boy", "Four weddings and a funeral", "Bridget
Jones"), but at other times borders on annoying (insert this movie).
The best bit of the movie is in the opening credits where you see Hugh dancing really badly and hamming it up in a 80's boy band (think "Wham!", "Bros"). It is hilarious and I STILL have the lyrics in my head. "And pop! goes my heart...." Ahh, the trip down memory lane to the time of my red, sparkly leg warmers and big hair. Aynway, this movie rates a 1.5 stars out of 5. Maybe a DVD choice, if there really wasn't anythink else!

Movie Review - The Queen

At Nillumbik we have started a bit of an informal Movie Club - ohh how exciting! I have always wanted to do this - to see a movie with a group of friends and then talk about it afterwards - pull it apart, rate it, compare with other movies, etc. Well, for our first movie we choose "The Queen". You see our "club" consists of all girls, hence we went for a "chick flick" but we steered clear of a teeny bopper, check your brain at the door, fluffy genre. I think we navigated that quite well.
The Queen has taken a few awards already and sees Helen Mirren acclaimed as she richly deserves. I had heard that this movie was orginally intented for the small screen as a telemovie - and thus I went in with small expectations. I saw small evidences of small screeness, but that isn't to say that I didn't throughly enjoy this movie. For although it doesn't have a grand cinematic feel but what it lacks in visual punch it makes up in a captivating script and cast.
I found the two central characters intriguing (other characters I found one dimensional and very annoying - Charles, Prince Philip and Cherie Blair) and found myself wondering about how much of this could be true and how it must be to walk in their shoes. I was moved to tears in the movie when the news was broken that Diana had died - and thought again about her two boys, and brought back where I was when I heard the news all those years ago (in my car, George, an ugly browny yellow car that frequently broke down), driving down my street in Watsonia, to our house in Elder Street (a house that I loathed - poor design, unbearably hot in summer and claustrophobic). I remember not really believing the radio report and thinking it was some sick joke. Do you remember where you were when you heard the news?
Anyway, this movie is worth seeing but by all means you could wait till the DVD. In conclusion I will give it a 2.5 out of 5. It losts points because days later after seeing it I have thought little about it - it only gave me a few more shades of the story. My favourite scene is when the Queen is stranded out on the moor (not sure if you would call it that...what exactly defines a "moor"?) and she breaks down crying. My interesting observation is that even then in this movie we do not get to look upon this powerful figure in a most vulnerable human moment, instead we only see her back silhouette sobbing. My questions is; are the English filmmakers really that unprepared to let us see their queen crying - that it would be too out of character? or was it deemed to be too confronting for us the audience to accept a bleary eyed, snot running queen who we have known only to be a stalwart of dignity and stoic endurance? Why is it that women who are powerful are not allowed to show emotion without somehow losing their position of strength?
One of my favourite lines in a movie is in "Courage Under Fire" when Meg Ryan's character, Captain Karen Emma Walden, is leading her troupe who has been caught behind enemy lines. As they become aware of their situation and she is faced with impossible decisions she begins crying, not sobbing, but calmly, quietly crying, in what is surely a life ending situation. One of her men, who is freaking out, out of control and has been trying to undermine her, starts mouthing off saying, "Great, now the Captain is crying." She turns and spits back at him, "It's just tension, you arsehole. It means shit." And then precedes to give her men a plan of action to save them. I like to think that a woman in power, in positions of leadership can be better leaders not because they do it like a man, but because they are a woman and can recognise and name what is going on - including our powerful, driving emotions!!!
But I am rambling now....
We chatted about the movie at the Pancake Palour afterwards and we all loved it. We swapped all our royal gossip and conspiracy theories - which was deliciously fun. The others gave it an average of 3 to 3.5 stars. So I guess I am being a bit harsher with my
2.5 stars out of 5.

Dinos, Bugs & sea turtles

We got a "Museum Membership" for Christmas (thanks Johnson's) and we have been twice already! The Museum is Harry's top choice now on Family morning (each Sunday). It has been fantastic, we average a couple of hours each visit and still have only seen half.
Harry is sooo into dinosaurs at the moment. Particularly as he has seen Harry and his bucket of Dinosaurs - he now carries around hs own bucket and watches an episode each night with a huge grin - I really think he believes it is a cartoon about him! He can name all the usual dinosaurs and will do a great impersonation of a Rex.
The dinosaur display is not that spectacular but Harry loves it. The children's museum is great though - he loved climbing over the displays of a giant sea turtle. Stephen HATED the "Bugs Alive" as we were looking at the spiders as big as your hand - we realised that they were alive - Stephen then asked rapid questions about "what if they get out?", "are they really real?", "is that glass cabinet safe/strong/escape proof?" We quickly moved on. I managed a quick look at that Aussie hero - Phar Lap.
This weekend we probably will check out Scienceworks!!!

Monthly Movie Review - Happy Feet

What a cute movie! We went the day after Boxing Day with Harry - and what fun it was. It is a great movie - visually stunning and entertaining enough for both children and adults.
The real star of the movie is Robin Williams whose is the voice of several characters.
The story has themes of being yourself, friendship, the power of one voice (or feet), and inner strength. It is a lovely story - well worth seeing.
I also checked out the movie's website www.happyfeetmovie.com is chock ful of extras - games, pictures, ringtones, colouring pages, etc. I plan to check it out further with Harry tommorrow.
I give this movie 4 stars out of 5. Harry loved it too - he was tapping his way out of the cinema!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you had a great Chrissy - we certainly had a full day stuffed with family and food! Breakfast with the Veal's (including the bouncy Buster!), the traditional strawberries, raspberries, blueberries in icing sugar mix (yum!) and my homemade museli (which we are now making fresh each day and loving it - it is so easy to make up). See footnote of what I throw together.

Then we moved onto the Annett's for a gorgeous lunch and huge amounts of presents (Harry has finally cottoned onto what they are all about).

Then in the late afternoon back to our place for a seafood dinner with the Said's. Picture LOTS of noise and small people running around high on presents and sugar - and that was just me and Nan!

Here are a few photos of the day (sorry they aren't great as I forgot to take many snaps - Ian did you get some better ones?) We had a lovely time and it was so nice to have all the Said's together around the one table (last Chrissy to do this was 8 years ago!)

Thanks to everyone we really did have a wonderful day and at the end of the day I personally was grateful for being part of such an amazing family (even if I did need a little lie down at the end)

Love to you all and wishing you a Happy New Year (oh yeah - got to start thinking about another party/bbq/gathering - or maybe just a quiet night in!!!)

Lisa's easy peasy homemade museli:
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup of natural bran
1/2 cup of wheat germ
handful of thickly chopped raw nuts (bazil, almond, cashew, peacan)
handful of pumpkin kernls
handful of sunflower seeds
handful of fresh dried fruit medley
handful of linseed

Just mix it together in a bowl and serve it with vanilla youghurt, milk and fresh fruit (mine today was necterine)

It's the season for Festivals!

Here are some photos, I have had on my camera from various festivals and events we have been to lately. These photos are from the Hurstbridge Wattle Festival. It was a great day (in between the rain). Here is Harry making a rain stick (in Koori style) which is proudly displayed in our front garden. The next photo is of Harry on the merry-go-around (note: he is alot braver than his mum, who waited till she was about 8 to go on a roundabout!) He loved it, although he did try and jump to another horse in mid flight, much to the delight of his parents ;) The other highlight of the day for Harry was having 3 rides on the ponies! And there were huge tears each time he had to get off. See mum on the right, with a proud smile on her face. I don't know where he gets his love of animals and horse riding - heee heee heee. All the rides were for free which was fantastic and the event (although we didn't get to see all of it) was beautiful run and organised. Well done, to all the Hursty co-ordinators!

The next lot of photos are from the Panton Hill festival. It was just Harry & I, and we went quite early, so we got to see a fair bit without the crowds. The day started off with a Sunday Service on the stage in the Memorial Park which had some beautiful singers from the Hurstbridge and Panton Hill Singers - they did gospel, old traditional, southern american, type of songs, which were gorgeous. Then they had Dave Fuller, from God's Squad speaking, all up it was a great presentation from God's people in Panton Hill.

The market stalls were a bit light on compared to last year - but local businesses were there, saw a few familiar faces, and I got to find out a bit more about the Diamond Creek Toy Library (which we have sinced joined up too - new toys each fortnight!!)

The first photo is of Harry in the swing chair ride. This is funny. Harry saw the rides and was pretty keen to have a go. He had loved them at the Wattle Festival, so I thought "why not?" even though this ride looked a bit more scary, there were older children on it (6-10yrs) and it went pretty fast. I asked him several times, and got him to look at it. I think he thought it was just like a swing at the playground. Anyway I put him on (cue photo) and stood behind the barrier. The guy starts up the ride and.....scared Harry is freaking out, screams as he wizzs by, I and other mums are asking (yelling) at the guy to turn it off, before Harry jumps out. Poor little man! So Harry was consoled by his first taste of fairy floss!

The last photo is the Cobb&Co horse carriage that we went on twice as well. It was a gorgeous experience and the horses seemed to be well looked after. We also went panning for gold in the historical soicety's setup in the Panton Hill Hall. It was a fantastic day which the organisers did even a better job than last year!

Gee, I love a festival - bring on Make Poverty History festival (18 Nov) and the Eltham Town Festival (19 Nov) this weekend.