Happy Birthday Trinity

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Trinity
Happy birthday to you!

hope you have a fantastic day!
keep your eye on the post - we sent your present yesterday.

*big hugz*

Happy Birthday Mum

Hope you had a wonderfully relaxing day, Mum. I'm sure the roses enjoyed the haircut. hope lunch tomorrow is tasty & your birthday celebrations continue for as long as possible. :) I'll bring your pressie in October. :)
*big hugz*

Welcome to the world Jules

Congrats Glennji & Deeji on your bundle of joy. Looking forward to meeting the new nephew in October (and seeing all the nieces & nephews!)
*big hugz*
(yes, I've posted this in the past.. ooOo time travel. ;) hehe)

Mom says fibrocartilaginous embolism isn't good for dogs

Whilst I wait for a release to build -- gotta love being a programmer -- I thought I best pen a quick update on the trials and tribulations of our "little" puppy Lucy, who is due to come back from a two-night stay at a specialist vets today.

On the weekend she fell at the bottom of the stairs, and while I didn't see it the noise was an almighty thump and she seemed a bit shocked afterwards. I gave her a hug and she ran up the stairs, but stumbled again at the top and almost fell over. It was heartbreaking! I sat her down on her bed and ran my hands over her to see if she'd actually broken anything.

Since that time she was having trouble walking, her back paw "knuckling" over and sliding on the wooden floors. When she didn't seem to be improving, we took her to the local vet, who suggested a spine or brain injury (!!) and referred us to a Dr. Peter Laverty, who was kind enough to slip us in between his other patients.

Overnight observation showed she wasn't improving (very quickly, anyway), so we signed the release for a myelogram. This x-ray was not without its risks, but would locate the problem and tell us whether she needed surgical intervention.

Another nervous night (her timing sucks -- with Dee about to go into labour any second, we really need our rest) and morning and we get the results: it is not a compression or swelling, so it is very likely a random "spinal stroke" (fibrocartilaginous embolism) that will fully heal itself over the next 6-weeks -- it could've been much worse! Dr. Laverty suggested that it was more likely that the fall was due to the stroke, not the other way 'round. Lucy will still not be allowed downstairs for a long time yet.

This week is the week

A recent ultrasound suggested Dee has "polyhydramnias" - that is, too much amniotic fluid - and the follow-up had the specialist ready to do a Caesarian on the spot (practically), but Dee obviously wanted a second (and third!) opinion from her doctor and midwife.

On Friday we got that opinion, and now the game-plan is set: if little Jules hasn't arrived by Thursday we're into the hospital overnight for inducing Friday morning. And if he can't be induced, ol' sawbones McGee is standing by for a c-section. Either way the lad is coming out!

It is still more likely that he'll come on his own this week, statistically speaking, but just in case we've asked Dee's ma to come over and look after the place for a few days.

It will be great to finally meet the little guy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAYNA!

I know, I know, we've already said it.. on facebook.. google plus.. some people maybe even in person. But dammit, this is tradition, so here we go..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAYNA!!

Happy Birthday Dayna!!

Have a brilliant day bringing science to the masses, and an awesome weekend!

Web page designers

Kerry and John Dunn have bought a motel in Kyabram. They need a web site and Kerry asked if anyone in my family did that sort of work. If you are interested, I'll get her to contact you directly. Any takers?

more tidying up

Sorry I forgot the camera. Today at Lisa's I moved things around in the living room, made pikelets for lunch and sorted the plastics cupboard. Carolynn worked in her room filling the new drawers. Lisa cleaned the bathroom, toilet and then started on her room. She found and moved out the cot but her bed was full of clothes when I left at 4pm ish( with the cot mattress.) Ian, the landlord, called in to check Adam's reports of mould. He will replace the bathroom fan but thinks the mould is due to the number of people in the house, the lack of circulated air, overcrowding. He congratulated Lisa on what she manages to achieve. He will try to find the key to the windows so they can open the windows on a sunny day. I brought in the washing and put out the last load so more moisture in the air to try to dry the washing.

Tomorrow I'm going at 8.30am so that Lisa can take Carolynn to the dentist at 9am without the little girls. We'll continue the clean up while Adam is away although he said Pat may bring the trailer when they return on Monday to clean up the yard. Not holding my breath on that one. If Lisa can manage to sort her room the passage is next job in line. Couldn't fit the panels for Jared's room in the car but he is private as long as Daria can be kept out. I'm joining Probus for lunch at the Manchester Arms. I'll call to try to get my heater checked out in the afternoon. Ian, Lisa's landlord, will get a new fan for the bathroom and fit it sometime next week.

I have the Wool Show Tuesday and Thursday and then on Friday and Sunday. The Red Hatters have a cocktail party at Strathfieldsaye on Saturday night, but I have a ride so just need to get the cooking done. That will be a busy week and I turned down the opportunity to have a boarder from the Sheep Show for the weekend. Off to Ballarat to see John Ives on Monday and will go to lunch at John and Kerry's then home. Next week should be quieter???

No power tools

Today I sawed the pieces of panelling we can use for Jared's walls. Hope Lisa and Jared can move anything that won't like to be hammered from their respective bookcases. I've also pulled out the shoe tidies so we can put one up for Jared and one for the little girls. The fluro desklight was repaired with a new globe so is good to go too. I'm ready for another session on Saturday. Lisa I'll be home tomorrow until lunch time but I think you are going out to Latrobe with Carolynn.

Great school reports for Carolynn, Jared and Trinity. Carolynn has had a driving lesson in wet weather so tick that off.

Glenn and Danielle I have more 0000 clothes , this time from Damien and Cheryl(blue). I'll hold them until we see how big your little man is.

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

Ignore me: I'm trying out the "send to Facebook" button that I've just added to the bottom of each post -- if it works, it means you can publish here, then click "[f] Send" at the bottom of the post and type "Family" to send a link to that group on Facebook -- let's try it, eh?

The week that was

Hi all. Thought this the best way to catch you all and I 'll post a reminder on FB to check in because I don't and I hadn't seen Damien's last post.

Games I have for the Wii are Play Motion, Crazy Mini Golf 2, Family Game Show, Just Dance, Mariocart and Wii Fit plus. All still unopened because I'm too busy.

What power tools do you want Damien? Glenn has the sander at the moment. Dayna's drill set is here and I'm keeping the Makita one Dad bought most recently.

We did get Jared set up in his own space yesterday. Think we could attach some panelling to the back of the bookcases to make walls. Lisa the large panels are 4 ft wide. I think we could cut two down to 3 ft to fit the bookcases and maybe use another one as a door that Jared can pull across when he wants to say the door is shut. We'll probably have to use a hand saw to cut them. I found a powerboard for him.

Maybe Adam should look at this diet Damien and Glenn are using if Damien is getting results. I want to know more especially when you can eat pizza and icecream on your free day.

lisa I'm free next weekend again if you want to do more. You can call to collect the drawers for Carolynn and the panelling on Tuesday or Friday morning if you want so Carolynn can get on with her room.

Shopping with Denise on Monday but no idea of times. Lunch out with Nana on Tuesday but home before and after unless I stay for coffee with you all. Spinners on Wednesday, home by 3ish, Exercise Thursday then out for afternoon tea at the Gibson's and maybe square dancing with Denise at night. Meeting Friday afternoon.

Photos of the new rooms wanted. I'd like Adam to move some of the adult books to his two bookshelves to free up the bookshelf in the passage for the children's books. Bring the cot and mattress back here when you collect the foam mattress for Daria. So much easier to plan than to do but we are making progress.

I want more power tools

We've got a bit of a break between visitors so I thought I should write a quick update.

We were expecting Darryl at some point before the baby was born, but he surprised us by calling us a few days before the weekend to say he'd be here along with his family. Luckily I had just spend a large chunk of the previous weekend cleaning the spare room (for the guys to come and fix our shutters) so we were okay. It was great to see Darryl, Alicia, Charlotte, William and Spencer, and although Oscar got a little upset about having to share his toys early in the week (especially after his nap when he was still tired) by the end of it he was happily (for the most part) playing with everyone. He seemed to like following Charlotte around, copying her, and later he and Spencer both copied each other.. which was good, because they were playing together, but not so good if they both wanted to play with one little toy :) I think it's a small taste of what's to come for him though. Daz was brilliant.. he made us the wardrobe (which we're still in the process of filling), fixed up the front security door, reattached the linen press door.. just generally did those tasks you really need power tools to do. We repaid him as best we could with beer and chocolates, but I think we still owe him big time.

This weekend Rach arrives, which will be great too. She's staying for a week, and I know Os is going to love having family here who don't want to ride on his bikes or read his books ;) Sadly Rach wont be bringing power tools to fix up whatever is left, but that's okay.. I think Chez has got a day off work so I'm sure they'll get up to no end of hijinks.

Speaking of Chez, she's doing really well. Only 10 weeks to go, and the little girl is very active. Os calls her "baby sister" and occasionally points out toys for her :) The time seems to be flying by now. We put up some photos of Cheryl so you can see her belly too.. I don't think it's as big as it was for Ossie. Either way I'm sure you'll agree she looks beautiful.

And me.. I'm on a weird low-carb diet. I'll write more about that when it's over if you're interested.. Then I'll have final numbers and the like. Either way, it seems to be netting a result for me, which is good.. because I do miss delicious carbs.

The big clean up

Today we moved Adam to a different area. He decided he would rather be in the corner of the lounge so some changes happened on the day. By late afternoon, Adam was repacking his things in the corner of the lounge. His desk had been repaired and the area for Jared was mostly clear. Lisa cleaned the windows and washed the curtains and we cleaned the floor and vaccuumed the walls.

I think tomorrow will be a day for them to catch up on the cooking and get settled. Maybe next weekend we can collect the bookcases for Jared's wall and set up his bed.

We have a new floor!

We got a floor laid today! Just one of the many, many benefits of being a pregnant woman (*Glenn ducks*) is you can ask for special treatment, like "as early as possible because we've got a baby coming". Dee found the flooring company on Monday and found out that "as early as possible" was before the end of the week! Good stuff! So last night we moved out all the furniture and ripped up the last little bit of carpet, then slept with the mattress on the floor where our dining table should be. Dee was happy to find it wasn't as hard to get up from the floor as she worried it would be. (Lucy woke us nice and early, of course, although arguably it was harder for her to lick us since she had to bend down.)

Rock and AJ (real names?) turned up this morning and got to work: we put up a drop-sheet across our door to block out the dust (but not the noise), then left 'em to it. Lots of hammering and grinding from behind the orange curtain, so Dee took the car out for a service and I put on some headphones. "A nice hardwood floor...", Tasmanian oak? Something like that. They were finished by about two o'clock, with another 24-hours before we can walk on it (so camping out again tonight); in a couple of weeks (once it has settled I suppose) they're back to sand and polish it. It already looks good!

Lucy was a reasonably good puppy during all the ruckus, although we had to block off her path with sheets of plasterboard because she just wanted to help. By the afternoon she'd grown used to it, and went outside to harass the neighbours little dogs. So funny to see muddy little "Milo" or yippy "Hannah" chasing a big black Great Dane around the yard! Considering that Lucy has been sneaking into Milo's yard and stealing his toys, I'm not surprised he chases her.

So we are slowly but surely getting something like settled. This floor was a big one, as it really brings the room together with all the painting, plastering, sanding and amateur-carpentary we've done over the last month or so. French-doors this weekend, getting it polished before the end of the month, a couple of rugs, photos and/or paintings, a little bookshelf cabinet by the door and we're done with our bedroom!