How To Accessorize With Tiny Birds: Let their inner party animal take over and throw you the surprise of the century.

Sometimes the best things are 'the nots.' Like not having to empty the cat litter first thing in the morning. Or not having to make your own cup of tea.
Yesterday was filled with these delightful nots.
Instead of making lunch Mr Small and I drove into town and went to a little Vietnamese restaurant for lunch with my husband instead.
Instead of staying home and doing the laundry, we went shopping together for a birthday dress for me. Though how Mr Small ended up fully kitted out for winter from head to toe is a complete mystery to me.
It was not a quiet day, but one filled with phonecalls, messages and texts wishing me well for the year ahead.
There were even some beautiful balloons from family and lovely flowers from a kindred spirit.

I didn't do the bedtime, bathtime routine. Instead I went to a party with my husband that I was kind of dreading. Once the director knew it was my birthday however, there seemed to be a never-ending supply of cocktails headed my way.
Delightful and refreshing.
Of course today is back to normal. With the faint buzzing that accompanies this richly deserved hangover, I had to make a new set of sandwiches for the kids. Mainly because I left the ones prepared yesterday out on the work surface all night.
While I asked the offspring to please, please let mummy sleep all the night, the night before my birthday I should have thought that through and asked they do it the night after ;)
That's my problem, not thinking things all the way through. Something for me to work on this year.
So today the wee foster kitties have forgotten where the litter is and have made a huge and stinky mess.
The laundry from yesterday is still here today.
Today I need to do a couple of phone interviews and hone my pitches.
I'm just going to make myself another cup of tea first.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.

It has been an eventful year, and I can remember each day by the cookies that I made. Some of you have been with me from day one and PATIENTLY waited as I totally erased and SLOWLY reposted my blog.-

You have also watched me get knocked flat on my butt, and cheered me on as I dusted myself off and got back up.  I am grateful to each and every one of you that took the time to encourage me and keep me moving, even on the days when I wonder why the heck I continue with this crazy hobby!  And I especially appreciate those of you who took the time to email me, and give me the little push I needed to get back into blogging gear...I TEND to procrastinate!  I appreciate it more than you will ever know, and hope I can give something back.

Here is my year in cookies. These are my favorites...some of them I've reposted, some never made it back onto the blog, so I am catching up now.  My goal for next year is to improve my skills, produce MORE original designs, and teach others to make gorgeous cookies also! Happy New Year!

Mr Woog has hit the big 37 - catching up to me in the numerical stakes. I continue to be leaps and bounds ahead of him in the emotional sense. We have been bumping uglies for some 15 years now. So I have been a cougar for a long time, even before the term was coined, marketed, written about and celebrity old ladies jumped on the bandwagon.

PS - Thank you Mr Finlayson for bringing this along to Mr Woog's Bday Dinner last night. We were all like -" Gross. Who would drink that??" Well you know who would drink that? Me and your wife. AND it was AMAZING. And healthy due to all the antioxidants. Yeah. That's right.

Growing up surrounded by brothers, fabulous as they were and are, there was a part of me that longed for a sister.
When the realisation finally dawned that after having 5 brothers arrive, that was not in fact going to happen, the dream subsided.
With our eldest child we knew early on we were having a boy. I was thrilled. I knew boys. I spoke boy. Boys were familiar territory to me. From nappies to tantrums, it didn't phase me a bit.
When we discovered I was pregnant again, I didn't want to know the sex of our baby at all. The longing for a girl had returned tenfold. I knew of course the minute they arrived, their gender would be immaterial, I'd love them to pieces. But there was a part of me that was wishing, wishing, wishing for a girl.
When she arrived I remember hearing her cry and asking eagerly: "What is it? What is it?" and the rather harried reply of my obstetrician: "We're still getting her out Sarah, hold on!"
I was always a bit impatient.
As it was the obstetrician didn't need to tell me. The minute they passed her to me it was all pretty clear.
To my husband I cried: "We made a girl!"
I said the same thing to the nurses in recovery, and repeated it again to my parents as they took us back to the ward.
We had made a girl.
A girl who six years later is my moonbeam.
A little girl who walks on her tippy toes everywhere we go.
A little girl who loves everything to be pink, purple and sparkly.
A little girl who loves to read and write and draw.
A little girl who sobs brokenheartedly if she doesn't get her way.
And we made her.
I couldn't love her more.
Happy birthday my darling.

My clearest memory of my birthday last year, was driving my son and some of his friends home from cricket accompanied by their incessant armpit farts the whole way. An hour and a half of armpit farts tends to taint festivities in my experience.
And since then?
Well I joyfully founded Rory's Garden, ran a 12km fun run and became a surf lifesaver. I've mourned the loss of my grandmother, and somewhere in there I continued my lifelong journey of being a wife and mother and trying to be better at it. I finally figured out what I really wanted to be doing work-wise and I'm going for it.
I read this in a book recently: " If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not constantly demanding more from yourself-expanding and learning as you go-you're choosing a numb existence. You're denying yourself an extraordinary trip."
The writer himself is an ultra marathoner called Dean Karnazes and his book has really highlighted for me that some people are crazy that my 21km half marathon later this year is just one small landmark in what I hope will continue to be an exciting and wonderful year ahead.
My goal of becoming a full time writer doesn't seem so unreasonable now.
My goal of being fit and healthy will, as always, be a work in progress.
The biggest realisation is that I spent so much of my life waiting for the other shoe to drop, for it all to come crashing down, I now know even if it does, I'll figure it out.
I am surrounded by people who love me, who continually encourage me to strive to be extraordinary, to do the extraordinary.
Many of you read my blog. Many of you continue to encourage me, to question me, to challenge me.
Thank you.
And I hope you'll make time to eat some cake today.
Because it's my birthday.
I'd like that.

Ice Cream, Yum!Happy birthday old man!

We celebrated Java's 11th birthday in the traditional manner by getting the dogs ice cream at Bruster's. Java loved it. Lucy, as usual, was a total pussy and was scared of her ice cream cup. *sigh*

Still no official word on Java's foot, but it does not appear to be cancerous. However, we still don't know what it is and how it will affect him moving forward...

A few weeks ago, Steph and I went away to North Carolina for the weekend. As usual, the dogs went to Wag-A-Lot for the weekend where they spent time in doggy daycare and cursed us for leaving them for the weekend. Upon our return, Steph though Java was limping, but I dismissed her concern since I didn't observe it myself.
Java at the Braves game

A few hours later I was standing at the butcher block in our kitchen. I turned quickly and my foot hit Java's right front paw. He flinched, pulled his paw back and made a noise. At this point I knew something was up, so I bent down for a closer look. What I saw worried me: Java's "pinkie toe" was swollen and had a sore on it. The toe itself was really tender and he wouldn't allow me the opportunity to look at it.

The next day I left on a work trip and Steph took Java to the vet. They couldn't find any obvious issues and gave us some antibiotics and instructions to watch his toe to see if anything changed over the next few days. Unfortunately, the swelling didn't go down, so late in the week Java had another vet appointment where they took some x-rays and a biopsy of his toe. That was April 13. When I called the vet that afternoon she indicated that the x-rays didn't show anything abnormal — we had hoped that he had a piece of glass or some other foreign object stuck in his toe. The x-ray also showed that its not cancer of the bone, apparently a common affliction of dogs. The biopsy was sent off to the University of GA for review...

Its now 2.5 weeks later and the biopsy is still not back from the University of Georgia. The swelling in Java's toe hasn't gone down, though the tenderness has improved. Is it an infection of some sort? Cancer? Something else? We have no idea and neither does the vet! I am anxious as can be about the results and what this means for Java. Of course, my thoughts are turning negative and I am thinking about amputation of his foot or leg due to cancer. I have no reason to think this is the case, but I don't have any hope that it's not, either. I'm scared to death and want an answer. Now!

Java is celebrating his 11th birthday this Saturday. Unfortunately, I won't be around to celebrate with him. Thankfully, he can't tell time, so he won't know that he gets his annual ice cream from Bruster's — I'm a cheap mofo and get him their doggie bowl of vanilla ice cream with a dog bone — but I'm sure he'll enjoy it just as much when I get home next week. My only hope is that his birthday gift is good news from the vet.

Whatever happens, we're going to do whatever is necessary to ensure he is happy, healthy and comfortable. I know the day will come some day in the future when we need to make tough decisions about Java's care. It won't be easy when that day comes. Let's hope we don't have to make those decisions anytime soon.