T is for Trackles: Love, Lurgies and Layouts

It has been a long two and a half weeks while Chris has been in Bangkok and Europe for work, busy and eventful. It was wonderful to see him walk in the door at 9am this morning, the kids ran up and hugged him before he even put his bag down and I don't think they let go for 10 minutes! Now the presents have been distributed, the pancakes have been eaten and everyone is showered and dressed except me! The boys are playing games on their computers, Taylor, still not well, has just gone for a lie down, and before I have my own shower I'm going to whip up some mini low-fat lemon cheesecakes to serve after the scotch fillet for our "Fathers Day" dinner tonight.

In between I'll be off to meet the Book Club girls to discuss our latest read, "Love Our Way" by Julia Rollings, a local Canberra woman who discovered that two of her 6 adopted children had been stolen from their mother and sold to the orphanage in India Julia had adopted them from. It was an inspiring and heart-wrenching read, and last night I watched most of the an old ABC documentary about child trafficking featuring the Rollings family's story and read all their latest news on Julia's blog, www.bittersweet-story.blogspot.com.

I mentioned that Taylor had not been well, she has that dreaded lurgy that is going around, a bad cough and all the trimmings. She spent all day at the Canberra Theatre on Wednesday and then performed in the ACT Youth Dance Festival in the evening. Ronin and I went and just watched her school's performance before heading home to tuck him into bed. It was excellent! Her friend dropped her home about 10.30pm and she was not a well lassie. She missed the last two days of the school week and I don't know if she will make it tomorrow, it doesn't look like it.

And then the other big girl in our family, our beagle Boo, had a bad time when she pinched a vertabrae in her spine, a common affliction in Beagles apparently, and one she has suffered from before. She was in incredible pain and we got her to the vet Friday afternoon where they decided to keep her overnight. She was given pain relief and anti-inflammatories and she is back to her happy self now. I was told to keep her still and quiet but that was impossible and she just had to be back outside with her beloved Obi, our other Beagle, who is like a son to her. Hopefully she will still feel ok when the opiate patch wears off!

As for me, I started back at the gym this week, and am feeling muscles I've not felt for a long time, but in a good way! I only got to go twice due to all the dramas with my girls, but tomorrow I'm going to try a class! I'm a bit scared! I probably won't be able to walk on Tuesday LOL!! I also got one layout done this week, not very prolific but not too bad considering. And finally, Collingwood won the preliminary final and meets St Kilda in the AFL Grand Final next Saturday. I am so excited! I will blog a bit more on that during the week.

So here is this week's scrapbooking offering, and one from last weekend I haven't shared yet. Enjoy what's left of your weekend!