My husband comes from a 'clan' not a family; his parents divorced when he was a child & they both remarried - so you have this blend of two families with 7 kids - there is; Tim, Michael [hubby], Big David, Shane, Stacey, Little David & Antony!
All the kids [except for Antony] have partners & children of their own; so you can imagine how many people we have to visit everytime we go to the Sunshine Coast!
Hubby's mum [Annette] is a true country girl; even though she was raised in Sydney. The true love of her life was Mel, who ran the Wollombi Pub & is the creator of Dr Jurd's Jungle Juice - if you know what this is then you're as old as me - he he he!
[Annie, Michael & I - Feb 2008]
Sadly, Mel lost his battle with prostate cancer in February 2008 - we still miss him everyday :(
Valentine's weekend was close to the anniversary of his death; even more sad than this is that Annie has become quite weak & unable to live on her own since loosing Mel & last Wednesday moved from her independent living unit into full-time care at the retirement village. So hubby knew that Mum would need some cheering up & the sight of my 'mountain of a man' always makes her smile. So after training & teaching Tai Chi on Saturday morning we threw a few clothes in a bag, jumped in the car & off we went.
We had a lovely weekend spending time with the family, eating, talking & playing pool [a family favourite] & Michael & David took their mum to church on Sunday :) I was going to join them until Bella [David & Louise's new puppy] jumped up onto me with muddy paws & I was wearing cream pants - so I got to stay back & have another cup of coffee with Louise.
We had a late lunch on Sunday with Michael's Dad & 2nd Mum [Ernie & Cheryl] who were down visiting from the Whitsunday's [where they now live] - so all in all we got to visit with everyone. It's always nice to catch up with Michael's family; since Ernie & Cheryl sold their Sunshine Coast home & moved permanently to the Whitsunday's it's usually quite tricky to get all the kids & partners & their kids together - so seeing everyone was great :)
Unfortuantely the trip back to the Gold Coast was not so wonderful, we hit traffic near the turn off for Bribie Island [right at the roadworks] & that delayed our trip home by a little; but the coffee stop at Nudgee on the way south was still good & we did have a wonderful weekend - even if we were exhausted when we got home at 7pm on Sunday night.
I hope that you also had a great weekend - whether you spent it alone, with family, with friends or even working. This weekend has made me realise that life is too short to not smile everyday.
Ciao
Mish :)
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