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It all started when my first son was born 11 and a half years ago. The only camera we had was an old style film camera, the type that you had to wind to get the camera ready to take another photo (think of those disposable ones). The quality was so bad, and I got really upset that the photos of my first born son weren’t clear, they were blurry and you could only get 12-36 prints to a roll of film. So I got myself my first digital camera and have never looked back, almost 12 years and 10 digital cameras later.

I never really got into the whole idea of ‘editing’ photos until this year. Photoshop is too complex for me, I leave that program to my Husband and I settle for a much easier ‘user friendly’ program to play with.

I am lucky to have 5 absolutely gorgeous kiddies to model for me, they have been a great source for me to practice my photo taking skills. But I have felt lately that I am always wanting to take more photos, even after I have taken photos of my own family, I still want to take more. I love the whole idea of picking a setting, getting a group of people (a group of friends, a family big or small anyone really it doesn’t matter) together to take photos, make memories that they can keep forever.

My Husband recently took photos for my best friends wedding and I did the editing. They turned out really great and I am so grateful for the opportunity to capture their special day.

I am hoping for a great photographing year in 2011 with a couple of friends already asking me to take their family photos in the new year.

We are also hoping to launch a website which will feature some of our photographs that we have taken so stay tuned.

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You know you need a break…

1. When your husband asks what you did today and you think he means you did nothing all day. Then you growl.

2. When someone asks you how old your kids are and you pause for a second because you honestly can’t remember.

3. When you find yourself sighing and rolling your eyes more than three times an hour.

4. When you’re in a Target parking lot and it takes too long to find your keys at the bottom of the black hole you call your purse, so you burst into tears.

5. When you’re taking notes in church and you start writing your to-do list in the margin.

6. When you put some kindergarten math worksheets in your first grader’s workbox so you can have two minutes of quiet while she does them on her own.

7. When your husband comes home at five and you’re still in your pajamas and he’s too scared to ask what you did today.

8. When you’re so exhausted that you fall asleep while giving a spelling test, but you still stay up until 2am watching Lost and 24 with your husband because you finally feel like you can rest and you want to enjoy that feeling.

9. When you start putting protein bars in the microwave so you can feel like you’re eating chocolate while still sticking to your diet.

10. When you write a blog post called 10 Signs That You May Need a Break.

Putting aside the first 9 signs, just for the mere fact that I searched for this then wrote a blog about it. I think I may just need a break.

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Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her!With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.

She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn’t have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane. When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn’t want anything from me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month’s time and she didn’t want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day. She requested that every day for the month’s duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife’s divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don’t tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outsidethe door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn’t looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.

On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn’t tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me… she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it’s time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn’t noticed that our life lacked intimacy. I drove to office…. jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind…I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn’t value the details of our lives, not because we didn’t love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.

Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away. At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I’ll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed – dead.

My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push through with the divorce. At least, in the eyes of our son, I’m a loving husband.

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse’s friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

If you don’t share this, nothing will happen to you. If you do, you just might save a marriage.

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

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The other day we got a really good shot of little baby Connor’s (boy bits) during a routine scan. We thought it would be cute to show Emily and Tiana this so they could visualise that the baby inside mummy is infact their ‘brother’ Now almost every day the girls ask me “How big is Connor’s penis now mum?” Not “How big is Connor now mum?” No, they are more interested in his male anatomy, the anatomy that they don’t have! So now I have had to tell daycare that if Emily and Tiana start talking about the size of ‘Connor’s penis’ not to worry it is just their unborn baby brother they are talking about.

In relation to this pregnancy number 4 again. My breasts have been involved in a growing battle against my stomach! Not only is my belly getting bigger by the day but so are my boobs! This is new for me as it never happened with any of my other pregnancies, and after giving birth to Emily and Tiana, I lost over 30 kilos gradually over 2 years, most of which came off my breasts!  Seeing as this has been quite obvious, Emily and Tiana have asked me twice now “Is baby Connor in your boobs mum?” I have had to explain that no, baby Connor is in mummy’s belly. Maybe when they feel him kicking they will understand better?

I just love little kiddies and the way their minds work

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They didn’t even have the decency to contact us at all the whole time they had the car to let me know what was going on! The only time they contacted us was a day after we dropped it off to tell us that it was all pulled apart and the fuel pump was definately the problem. They also said if we wanted the aircon fixed it would cost another $2000 just for a compressor alone. So it was all pulled apart after a day but it took another 13 days to put the seal in and put back together?

We contacted them after the car had been there for 9 days to see what was going on and were told that some of their machinery was broken and needed to be fixed before the car could be finished. Another 3 days went by so we contacted them again, this time we were told that one of the guys had been “taken off” working on my car because there were other “more urgent” jobs to be done (I have 4 kids and need to work also).

When I finally went to pick up the car up the guy was very rude. He said it was a big job and then told me that some bolts near the batteries were rusty so it took longer to fix. So does that mean I paid almost an extra $500 and went without the car for 14 days for him to take out rusty bolts?

I am very upset and not happy with their service and will NEVER take the car to them again, and we will NEVER recommend them to anyone. I just thought that I would share our experience with them and hope anyone else that goes to Doran’s Diesel Injection Service doesn’t have the same problems we had.

The thing I find quite out of the ordinary is this following quote from their website.

The team at Doran’s Diesel are renowned, not only for their wealth of experience but for their friendly and patient assistance.

I would love to know where there friendly and patient assistance was.

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