Friday, December 29, 2006

Basketball and backyards


Hello everyone, Just wanted to share a few snaps with you, and show you the recent changes in our back garden.

We have now finished off the covered area, so that it now includes some marble chips and looks a little more tidy.

The biggest change of all that you will notice is that Opa and Rob have put up Michael's Christmas present of his basketball backboard.

I think they have done a great job, they have used a cargo net as a ball catcher, and it does a great job! Michael and Rob (and I) have spent a good deal of time 'testing' it ;)

We are now going to focus on retaining the back part of the garden near Michael's swing, and put in a more permanent pathway, and eventually put in a water feature where our pond is.... one day! Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

.... sorry

Dear Family! It's been good to see you all, over the last few days, and I apologise for being so grumpy! They reckon moving house is way up on the stress meter, but I'm finding it particularly hard this time - don't reckon it's been this bad before! But I AM sorry, and I hope you can all forgive me! Hopefully things will all be much better soon ..... I'm not thinking how many (few!!) more sleeps now! Love you all! Mum

Friday, December 22, 2006

Seems like we've all been too busy to Blog this week! I can understand that - it IS the silly season, after all! We survived our 5 "parties" in 3 days, and the fellowship ladies startled me yesterday, giving me a lovely little quilt! I'm very happy to be home today! I've made the Pineapple Nut Mould, and the carrot jelly, and fudge ..... just in case there's not enough food! (Ho Ho Ho!)
The packing is continuing - we even finished the china cabinet the other night, so that's good! There's really just the kitchen and study (and shed ... sigh!) to do, so we reckon we'll make it! Can't believe in less than 2 weeks we'll be there! Wow!
It will be good to see you all in the next few days, and the beds are ready for you, Debbie, Stu, Natalie and Calvin! I hope you ALL travel safe, whether long or short trips, and also hope work's easing up a bit etc! Be gentle on yourselves, all of you! See you Monday! (or tomorrow!) (or both!)
Love Mum

Monday, December 18, 2006

WE got a pressie today!


'Dear Families Brocklehurst, Kitto and Badenoch. Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for a Peaceful and Loving 2007. All our love Bella, Peter and Rike.'

It's safely under our tree!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

well fancy that!

Dad's about to go for a walk with Gary ... around the golf course!! Beats packing!

.... I'm a bit weary ...

Hi All! Well, we've survived today's farewell at church, and are able to say it was an excellent morning! We had a baptism, of 4 month old grandson of a key couple, and that was beautiful - made a balance, between saying goodbye to us, and welcoming Lucas into the church family and looking forward .... and the church was packed, which everyone loved! There were very few speeches, like only one, which was possibly a bit surprising, but that's OK .... lots of folk spoke individually to us, and we felt good about it all! They've given us a voucher for local (VH) hardware shop, and we plan to get the "Loxton Memorial BBQ" ..... it can be a beauty, too, with some left over towards our out-door setting!
We have 5 "parties" between Tues and Thurs this week so I won't be doing much cooking this week!

I haven't been packing this week ... or was it last week? ... I DID get all the christmas mail written (Dad did Granny and Grampa's!) (I did the other 81!), and I wrote on "christmas/goodbye n thanks for all the fish" cards for our lovely local friends, and I wrapped all the grandies' presents ... had to pack the stockings already so i knew what wouldn't fit in, that I had to wrap ... and all in all it was a very draining, tiring week! I do feel good now it's all done, but it's all wrong, not having gifts for Isabelle! .... and that's just Nanna's view ... I can't begin to think what it's like for you, Debbie and Stu!

Grandad came up yesterday, and it's good having him here! I think he enjoyed catching up with some folk at Martha's last night, and church this morning. He's happy with his Hotel room .... has somewhere to retreat to when things get a bit chaotic! I plan to send the presents for Grandad to take to Heth's on Tues, to be one less thing for us to take on Christmas day!
Tonight Martha's is on again, and it's also the Carols by Candlelight, around the rotunda in the main street, so another night out!
.... only 18 sleeps! Love you all! XXX

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Results are finally in!

Well I've known for a week the results of two of my subjects but was sweating on my Marine Science results cause it has such a challenging subject full of useful and useless information. So here they are:

Intro to Aboriginal Studies Credit
Marine Sciences 1 Pass
Ways of Explaining Education Distinction

So I'm just wrapped about it!

Thanks to Stu for help with my Education Essay which was worth 55% of mark I got a High Distiction!

My two essay's for Aboriginal Studies I got a Distiction and a Credit.

All in all a good start to Uni studies considering it's been a long time.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Natalie's School Concert



We have just spent the evening sitting in the school watching small children sing HUNDREDS of slightly off key songs! And I might add that I sat in the pram (we only have one folding chair). Despite the hundreds of songs it was of course still very cute. It was not much of a surprise to us that we had to wait 90 minutes brofore Natalie's class performed. AND it was SO worth the wait. Her class was certainly the best. They sung and danced to the 'polar express' song. I took some video - very cute. We were very proud.

Calvin didn't find the evening quite as rivoting as us but he was momentarily distracted by a jet flying over head (thus the telescope looking up). Notice the cute jocks poking over the top of his shorts? He is VERY toliet trained. Today we were in Target and he said he had a poo and I said he had to wait and he did and it was all fine (I'm so happy).

And now we are all tired and grumpy and it is time for bed. Nighty night.

(Still looking forward to hearing about Michael's)

Jacob's Care Photo


Speaks for itself I think ;)

Monday, December 11, 2006

What is happening at Christmas???

Hey there,

Can anyone please tell me what is happening at Christmas? I have my family jumping up and down at me as no one has told me what we are up to! They want to have something here, and I need to organise it quickly, so any input would be most appreciated!

Also there was talk of a Kitto Christmas, is this still going ahead?

Thanks!

Off to process some orders, what a change doing overtime! :(

We are the champions!!!!

Here is a champion with my champion. Work it out either way you like but I am one happy girl!

Go Rick Kelly you good thing :) Posted by Picasa

Sunday, December 10, 2006

.... moving .... pictures ...

.. and no, it's not quite what you think! Dad has just finished packing his first box (wow ... cheer cheer ... hip hooray!) .... of photos .... from our walls .... boy does it look weird! I've just caught up my diary for over a week (WHY do I get behind?!) and am about to do Friday's ironing, then start our Christmas mail! I think Dad's gonna start packing the study then .... he HAS conceded that he can't get the rest of the slides scanned before we go, so i guess that's something! Hope you're all cool n stress-free!

Bushfire

Here is a picture that was taken at about 7pm, the fire began at about 3pm, so it was still going strong after 4 hours. After this image was taken there was a mass influx of water bombers and choppers (we counted 2 bomber planes, 3 choppers and an Elvis). That dramatically reduced the smoke which is probably just as well considering that the wind got up quite strong at around 8pm Posted by Picasa

Our new pergola area

Ok so its a little messy out there still, but this is our new pergola area. Rob and Dad did it in less than 2 days - one day last weekend, and yesterday.

It certainly makes a difference when it comes to shade, and heat entering the house. It was 41C here yesterday and it was like a fridge inside, we actually turned off the aircond. at one stage! Well done to my Dad and Rob for doing a great job :) (will look great once its all finished and tidy!) Posted by Picasa

OUCH

About my lip it is OUCH!

OUCH

About my lip it is OUCH!

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Update from our world - a little long I am sorry!

There hasnt really been much to tell lately from our neck of the woods until this week, which has been quite umm 'interesting'.
My work load was always going to be terrible this week with 10000 pre-orders in the system, my relief worker leaving Thursday for 4 weeks off on sick leave for a shoulder op, and the fact that its 2 weeks out from Christmas and the daily order count plus the pre-orders would be immense. That was the up side of things. The downside, is that I had to work from home all weekend, as well as EVERY night! I think I have clocked a 60+ hour week thus far. I have a new worker starting Monday that I will need to train, which shall be fun. We had stocktake yesterday in 41C heat - bear in mind I work in a tin shed with no airconditioning, which probably doesnt help the way I feel! The other bad thing is that I am really sick with some sort of flu (and really wishing that it isnt my chronic fatigue rearing its ugly head again). I am quite frankly exhausted. But that is enough on me.

This week saw a quite large bushfire near our home, and it was quite bizzare seeing the "Elvises" go over head very low (not sure if they were filling up at the reservior??), as well as water planes, media choppers etc. It was quite spectacular to see, but a little too close. I will post some images up once I download them. Michael was scared and sadly it reignited some old fears of his, and thus had nightmares about school fires with him there (curse you kids who lit that fire at Braeview, you just dont get it do you?). That was also the same evening that Rob and I were meant to be going to Robbie, which we didnt end up going to on the count that we were both suffering the flu - Rob's remainders and my coming down with. So with the bushfire around it was probably best we were home to keep an eye out. Downside is that, well we missed Robbie, and its something I dont want to dwell on as it doesnt hurt so much! A friend at work went and sent me some amazing pictures. :(

Wednesday night saw a very welcome visit from Grandma and Grandpa (aka Mum and Dad) who saw Michael at the Christmas Carols. Yes we finally located him during the last song! Its very hard locating a kid in a red t shirt and santa hat, when about 300 other kids are wearing the same! It was a lovely night, and yes I will post some photos of that too. Thanks Mum and Dad for staying with us, it was nice to have you here, I am just sorry I was chained to my computer working - damn orders!

Thursday saw Michael get his hair streaked again - he looks great :)

Friday saw Michael get his end of year report, and he has done very well. A few little behaviour glitches probably held him back, but academically he did very well, and is ahead of his years in spelling and reading, and did very well in design/technology and German.

Today saw Michael have a few accidents. Firstly he picked up Stormy, who didnt want to be picked up, and got a scratch on his tummy for his efforts. He then went swimming and bumped his chin on the bottom of the pool whilst doing the end of lesson dive. Then tonight he thought he would try shaving whilst having a spa, and with no idea on how to use a razor, sliced open (quite deeply I might add) his upper lip. Poor kid was totally in shock and really didnt cry all that much considering the amount of blood. And there was lots!!! He is now in bed sleeping - thank you panadol, but I think that it will teach him to ask next time he uses a razor! Needless to say I didnt go to my work Christmas dinner tonight!

I think I need to lie down now!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Ashes and things

Go Aussie!
This morning Al & Sam & I were out and about in the city so went to the Museum and saw the Ashes. It really is tiny (give me the AFL Premiership Cup any day!) but was nice to see a bit of history like that. One of the most beautiful things about the experience was observing the reaction of a well dressed old man wearing a suit and hat who would have been at least in his 80s or more - he was so chuffed, and said he'd been waiting his whole life to see it and it was such a privilege. That was nice :). I thought it was cute that chuffed old man and baby Sam were next to each other to see it!
Jacob's reaction to the Australian win last night was also note worthy. We cheered so he kept on cheering, and looked for his microphone to cheer louder, and hip-hip-hooray-ed it a few times, and was quite excited by it all! Might need to take him to a Twenty20 sometime ;)

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Fudge!

No, really!! While Heth was here we (she!) made some delicious very easy yummy fudge and i thought we should share the recipe! Put 500gms choc bits, 60gms butter and 1 tin condensed milk in a dish and microwave Medium 4-6 minutes, stirring twice. Add chopped nuts, fruit, ginger (yum!!) or whatever, pour in tin and set in fridge! Heth Al Jacob Ian and I can all vouch for it being absolutely scrummy!

I've finished packing the lounge, spare room, sewing room (yes really!!), Christmas decorations, and will tackle the teak cupboard in the dining room tonight! We're going to leave about 7 tomorrow morning and spend a few hours with Granny and Grampa before we go to Adelaide for Michael's Carols night at school! I'll be happy to have a non-packing, just-sitting day!

I hope, Rob and Cherie, that you both have a wonderful time at the concert tonight .... I look forward to the Blogs! Take care, all of you! Love Mum XXXX PS What time do the Carols start?

More photos on the Cozens blog









For any one who is interested, there are some back dated pictures on the Cozens blog of sifferent things. Including some others of the kids playing in the mud! As you can see here they don't really know what it means to stay clean while making mud pies.
Hope you are all well.

(oh yeah, Stuart and I only forgot our anniversary for a little bit this year! We'd both remembered and exchanged pleasantries before he left for school!! Nothing exciting planned tonight, maybe just take-out for tea and a quiet drink on the verandah).

Monday, December 04, 2006

Calvin's finger

Here is a picture of Calvin's cut finger that we took last week (Thurs I think).
Owww. He still wearing Wiggles band aids and it still looks yuck.

It is still sore - poor guy.

4 bunnies, 1 owl, and 1 flat tyre...






And that was just on the way TO Loxton! (We didn't hit the bunnies or owl, just saw them). An hour out of Loxton at 11:30pm, in the middle of nowhere, with no mobile coverage, we got a flat tyre that was actually more like shredded than flat - we were very lucky and didn't lose control or anything. It was very bald (i'm talking more than Al-bald, but Dad-bald) so was lovely to get 2 new tyres as a souvenir from our last trip to Loxton. We unloaded the car and changed it (well Al did) and Jacob stayed asleep and got safely to mum and dad's a bit later than anticipated. Jacob did like sleeping in Nanna and Pappa's room and we liked it too! We had a very relaxing few days away, and saw some Christmas things, and had coffee at Berri, and chilled and it was good. Thanks for having us! We had a pretty uneventful trip home on Saturday arvo but was about half an hour too long for the boys. Was certainly lovely that they slept for half of it, but Jacob had had enough by the top of Cross Rd and Sam cried on and off from about Murray Bridge (more off than on really).

We had a busy day yesterday too. Al went to church in the morning (we put up the Christmas tree!) and got home about 1:30, and we got organised and went to Mt Barker for Dan and Bron's engagement party. Jacob went to sleep on the way of course but as soon as he woke up he was excited about the Party. We left there at 4:30 (and hour after I had been hoping to, but we only got there at 3!) and picked up a few things from home and went to our Playgroup Christmas Party. I think we all had a great time, and everyone appreciated Al entertaining the kids! Sam slept very well last night cos he really didn't get much during the day, and after screaming and bashing on the door for 25 minutes Jacob seemed to sleep well too. (It was at the 25min mark that Sam was woken up, so Al sat with Jacob til he went to sleep which was what J wanted in the first place! *sigh*) It's nice to have a quiet at home day today!

Busy weekend in Whyalla (No hospital trips!)





Looking back at the days that have just gone by I can see that we have in fact been quite busy. Friday night Stuart stayed home and got stuck into reports and I went and baby sat Matt and Sharina's boys (Daniel 4 and Bradley 2). After an hour of singing lullabys I then had a relatively easy night, though I didn't get home until after 12, and Stuart was still up reporting. Saturday morning became busier than we had planned with a trip out to the shops and then a dash to church to organise the power point for Sun night's Carol service. (Was not happy as I had been asked to do the power point and then was not given any details and was not told of the practise. Was very glad that I found out as I had some important changes to make). I got home in time for Stuart to run off to school for an hour before returning the car so that I could take Natalie out to a birthday party (at a guess I would stay there were 30+ kids there - crazy). Stuart kept doing reports. Then it was time for cleaning, tea, kids to bed and THEN PIRATE PARTY. We had a few of the guys around to watch Pirates of the Carribean 2 and I had fun dressing up in Calvin's Captain Jack stuff. Of course it was after 3:30am before we got to bed and Dave decided to crash on the couch (so I had fun at 6am keeping the kids entertained and quiet! Though they were very excited about having breakfast with Dave. Natalie is such a big flirt). Then Sunday was church (and more reports for Stuart) and THEN in the evening it was off to the Bethel Christian Centre's Community Carols. Apart from Calvin being sad that the lines for the bouncy castle and pony rides where too long for him to have a go, the night went well (though we had about twice as many people as the church can comfortably hold). The Children's church presentation was SO cute (they sang Colin's 'Christ the King of Christmas') and Natalie was dressed at a candy cane. She did really well, even though she did sing one chorus facing the back of the stage! Towards the end of the service she then joined the big girls for a dance (to Colin's 'Aussie Jingle Bells') and she got many cheers for her solo dance (I was SO proud). It was about 9pm before we got home and Stuart went straight back to reports and I decided to give him his space by going out with a bunch of people. Coming home at 11:30 probably wasn't the smartest thing to do and consequently my three very late nights (and early mornings) have all caught up with me today. Oh well, it is actually quite nice to feel tired as the result of personal choices and a jolly good time rather than an involentary trip to hospital. So that is our weekend. Hope that you are all enjoying the crazy party/service season too. Love and hugs.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

What a surprise!

I'm sure you'll all be SO amazed to hear that Dad went out and got himself a new phone today! So I'm back in communication, with his old one again .... sigh! Maybe just as well really, as the old one's been very odd today, turning itself off and on and all sorts of weird stuff! I decided the hallelulia chorus wasn't appropriate for me, and we're a bit disappointed that it's not an option for Dad any more! Obviously we both still have the same numbers!
On a different subject (or two!) .... our proper boxes will be here between 7.30-8 tomorrow morning! Excellent! .... and we're thrilled that Grandad is gonna come up for one last visit, too!
Stay cool, and don't work too hard!

Dispersed backup procedures

As we continue our hunt for an Intel 865 PERL motherboard (supplier number 1 realised that they no longer have any, and now we are waiting for supplier number 2 to decide whether or not they have any in stock) we've decided to start preparing for the worst. (This is for if Plan Z doesn't work.) (Plan Z involves sending our hard drives to Dicko the friendly IT consultant in Melbourne, who has a mate who bought an 865 a few year ago, and letting him work his magic.)

So, could everyone have a look at their computers, and the CDs that they've got lying around, for any collections of pictures that they might have got from us. Some things that I think I've put on other peoples computers include our holiday in Tasmania (still got that Al?) and other holidays and trips away at various times. If you've got any folders of our photos, I'd really like to know that, just in case we aren't able to get the RAID to rebuild when we attach it to a new controller. (Make sense to you, mum?)

The third part of this message is to encourage everyone to backup everything on their computer that they would not want to lose, and KEEP TRACK OF WHERE THE BACKUPS ARE KEPT! When our computer comes back to life, and we realise that we haven't lost any data, we will laugh, and then spend the next day (and 80 DVDs) backing up EVERYTHING, regardless of the fact that "I'm about to buy a 300GB drive to use as a more convenient backup, so there isn't really much point doing it now.)

Bother. Bother. Bother.

... very strange!

After its conniption the other day, and being off for a while, and re-charging again, my phone now seems to be working .... occasionally! Rather unreliable, but sometimes it's OK! So if you text me and I don't reply, assume I didn't get the message, and try some other means of contacting me! Stay cool! I'm off to quilting .... will have a lovely day!

Monday, November 27, 2006

Well we had a good time last night ;)

And so did everyone else there. A special surprise guest also made an appearance - Jimmy Barnes. More details are on Jon's site and also on my blog Posted by Picasa

My poem to everyone

Roses are red
Violets are blue
And........
I love you

Here is a joke that I made up all by myself:

Q: What did the yellow bucket say to the blue bucket?
A: You look a little pail.

OSHC gave me yellow hair. My hair was spiked up :-)

We put up our Christmas Tree ho ho ho, and stupid stormy knocked off one of the balls. The cats like climbing the tree.

I have another joke,

Q: What did the hiccup monster say to everyone?
A: huc huc happy Halloween.

Is that a good joke?

Last night I went to Mum's parents house because they went to the gig, I went home at 1.20am!

Love Michael
xxx
()()()

The Beach!



Friday night we went to the beach! Jacob has decided lately that he doesn't want an afternoon sleep (but he really should) so of course at 4o'clock on the way fell asleep! He was completely out to it, didn't even stir when Al put sunscreen on him. Bit of a bugger really! Seeing it was so stinking hot we couldn't leave him there and wait so got him out and he was very sooky and grumpy. We had a paddle (Jacob didn't, he was a bit freaked out and wouldn't let go of Al's neck) but was rather lovely. Sam liked dangling his feet in until the water splashed his nappy - wasn't too keen after that! So that was Sam's first trip to the beach. We then went back to the car and got the prams and went for a walk and got fish&chips and sat on the grass outside the Grand and ate it. Jacob enjoyed it and Sam slept. And of course we followed it up with icecream!

Then saturday when it was still stinking hot we filled the clam up and the boys had a bit of a splash. Sam certainly liked that and looked so cute in his jock bathers! Jacob wasn't quite so sure (and his only bathers are size 1 (i'm pretty sure he's getting a UV top for christmas) so he warmed up to it more once he was in the half nicky noo nar). Sam loves kicking and splashing in the bath so we weren't surprised he enjoyed it, and we encouraged Jacob to 'kick like Sam' and that seemed to work. He is still a bit (or very) tentative so we'll need to keep encouraging him and giving him opportunities to get used to the water. Good times!

Trucks!




Yup, that's what we're into at the moment... hard to avoid them really! Last week work started on the block next door, and they work 7 - 4:30 mon to fri and 7 - 2:30 on saturday. Entertains Jacob nicely! Last week we put his step out the front so he could watch to his heart's content (until it got too hot and he had to come inside). The water truck accesses the water from out the front of our house so we feel like we're right in the thick of it! 7:30 saturday morning while i was asleep it sounded like they were digging up concrete a few metres from the bedroom... cos they were! Doing something with the water pipes, i dunno. It would have been polite if they'd told us they were going to be blocking the driveway for a few hours and if we want to go anywhere to move the car, but, well, good thing we didn't have any plans! They've also removed most of the trees from the edge of the area so looks quite different from our back yard. Especially since a few bits of iron have come off our fence so we've got a gaping big hole near the compost heap - was very strange hanging out the washing while watching them chainsaw the trees! The first photo is what i was greeted with when i opened the front door about half an hour ago, and the rest are pretty self explanatory! I'm sure you'll be updated on progress again :)

Sunday, November 26, 2006

my medalion

when I got my medalion Amanda Grahams was there.she is a book illustrator. It was for the premiers reading challenge. Last year I got a certificate. Posted by Picasa

Darn!!

Well bother bother bother!! My mobile has decided it has had enough, and no longer works! It could have held out for another two months - we were gonna get new ones when we move anyway, and see what deal we could get at Victor, for buying two! But I really don't think I can cope for two months without a phone ..... mine is the one Dad got the day we headed for Newcastle nearly 4 years ago, so he pointed out it probably doesn't owe us anything!! Anyone know how to retrieve saved messages from a "dead" phone?!

I was very disappointed to have put on 1kg when i weighed myself last week so I've added a block to my usual morning walk. Measured it the other day, and it's 5ks - takes me an hour, and is about 9000 steps! I'm being more careful with what I eat, too - will see what the scales tell me this week!

Of course, possibly a dumb time to increase my walk, as I'm finding with packing, that I tend to wander thro the house a bit, looking for something just the right size to fill a space in a box, and two days this week I've done over 30,000 steps ..... and yes, i AM sleeping well at night! The heap of full boxes is growing, and Dad got some more, bigger empty ones for me yest, so my frustration over yet another delay in getting the proper boxes, is eased a bit! Latest is, they should be here Wednesday! Which is 5 weeks from M Day, and in that 5 weeks we've got two lots of lovely visitors and 3 trips away! Oh well .... I'm sure it will all happen!

Loxton Lit Up with big bang last night, and Martha's had about 15 visitors through, plus about 10 of our own folk, so we were quite pleased! There were 7 of us "working" there, which was more than we needed, but we enjoyed the fellowship time together! Jill and Jaap came in, and a couple of their Motor Home friends, and Mickie and Les from next door. There have been a few frustrations with things not happening - like our flashing sign out on the footpath runs off a car battery but the battery was flat! and we didn't have a baby Jesus - so Sharon went & bought a baby doll, that lights up - it's AWFUL!! But wrapped up in the manger it's OK ..... just gives me the shudders! And we haven't got the messages on our manger yet ... the taped messages Natalie did last year .... the technology just hasn't got set up yet .... we got there to set up Fri night and the extra tables weren't there, and half finished banners were all over the place, and the people were asking ME what to do - I stepped down from that committee a month ago! My BP was up a bit by the time I came home, I suspect! But I can see the funny side of it now! It all looks good, and by next week we might have some of the glitches sorted! I even sold two Christmas Veggie Tales DVDs to a lady ... and I'd been going to buy one myself! Oh well!

Dad's gone to Renmark this morning, left 7.30 .... next time I'll go with him, for his farewell!
I should say farewell and go get ready for church! Love you all! Mum/Gramma/Nanna/Karen

Friday, November 24, 2006

Update from Mum re: Michael's carols night

Hey there,

Just to let you know that his Carols night is actually Wednesday December 6, not the 7th has he quoted in his post. This will be his last carol's night in junior primary school. He starts transistion on Monday to become a full fledged primary school student. He will attend classes for year 3's and learn how they conduct their daily routine and learning pattern.

He also has another post for tonight in regards to a special award that he recieved, but I will leave that up to him to tell you.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

one of my carols songs

one of my carols songs

dashing through the snow
in a one horse open sleigh
over hills we go
laughing all the way
ho ho ho
bells and bobtails ring
making spirits fly
this is our carols night
Here we go

jingle bells jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse open sleigh
hey

One that makes me upset is

Light a candle
There's a sign of hope in your hands
Light a candle
For the child who sleeps in the cold

Thats all I remember about that part.

It makes me upset because there is a child sleeping in the cold

My carols night is December 7th at 7pm

I wish you could come, if you could that would be great.
Love Michael
xxx()()()

well, it seemed like a good idea at the time

I installed a watercooler for our computer last night. (A Zalman Reserator 2, for those of you who are interested.) Very spiffy. Shiny blue coolant, a big radiator. We could hardly believe how quiet it was when we fired up the computer without all of those silly fans that oldfashioned people still use for cooling their PCs. We could also hardly believe how long it took for the monitor to appear, and how long it took for it to actually boot.
After a great deal of troubleshooting, Tony realised that we'd used the wrong screws to brace the CPU cooling block, and had scratched the motherboard, and it wasn't actually booting. Oops.
Tony is currently investigating options for rebuilding the Raid Array all of our data is stored on, without losing it all, and having to pay some data recovery specialists hundreds of dollars. Tony has lent us his PC in the meantime (he's been having fun playing with one of the Lamp style Macs, so he can cope without it.)
So far the most awkward thing is not being able to watch the cricket, while the kids watch kids shows.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

my week so far

At the start of the week,i went swiming with my class. I met my new teacher for swimming, and before I was a seagull, but now I am a shark. We call her Mrs Shark! On Tuesday and today we played stuck in the mud. I didnt caught once yesterday, but today I did. Yesterday there was a struck of lightening and thunder. I hate loud noises, so I said "I hate loud noises", but then I got over it.
Bye for now,
Love Michael
xxx () () ()

Some old Christmas artwork...


While mum was cleaning up, she came across this poster done by Heather in 1985... Thanks Heth! It is a good reminder of what Christmas is about.

Oh, and I went to the first 'last time at Loxton' thing today and was farewelled. (A chaplaincy support meeting at the High School.) How do I feel about this? A bit strange - so we really are leaving soon! [43 sleeps?!]

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Jacob the Rock Star

Rock Star 'like Colin' + bonus singing. Very Cute and yes we are very bias! Enjoy!!!


what we did

hi everybody
At the city for lunch mum&i had A chicken salad wrap yummy.................! bye for now love michael

Ummm... well... actually....

Stuart is home again now today, but not to look after me! The poor guy has a sore stomach and is keen for some rest! Oh my goodness!!!

Ok, let's review: Natalie has been sick, Calvin has been sick, Heth has been sick (hope your feeling better now), I'm recovering from being sick, Al is also recovering and now Stuart is sick (wasn't Dad K ill in there somewhere too? And I'm sure I remember Sam not being 100% either). So it really is time for a bit of health I think. Or maybe a nice lie down. ;P

Monday, November 20, 2006

Guess where WE went today...?

Yup it was our turn to visit the hospital... Al was feeling very crook after his exam (I think a combination of stress, over tiredness, dehydration and having this cold for a week or so) so went straight to bed and unfortunately couldn't keep any fluids down. I managed to convince him it would be best to go over to the repat for some drugs and a drip before he felt any worse, and it was certainly easier to go at 4pm when Repat casualty was open and Jacob was still in care. Much better than taking two tired boys to Flinders and having to wait a few hours just to be seen! He went in after about 15 minutes and got a jab of maxalon in his butt, and didn't seem dehydrated enough to need a drip. He rested there and kept some water down and an hour and a half after we got there we went home! We picked up Jacob on the way home and Al went straight back to bed. He did get up for an hour or so a while ago and had something to eat and even managed to put Jacob to bed. He's in bed again now and i'm sure that after a good big sleep he'll be feeling heeeeeeaps better. So that's our drama for the day!

I think that might be enough for the hospital trips for this family for a while - don't anyone else get any ideas!

You'll never believe it, but...


Debbie went back to hospital today!

Of course it was to sit in the back and hold the blood soaked rag on Calvin's finger!!!
Stuart stayed home from school today because I am still feeling rather unsure of myself (light headed, nauseas, stiff and sore) and I keep finding new injuries like a big bruise on my knee and my neck is now really stiff.... anyway, back to Calvin. I was sleeping in and Stuart was with Calvin and Calvin decided that he really needed to cut his apple with a REALLY sharp knife. Sadly he cut himself and I came out to the kitchen to find Stuart standing over Calvin holding his bloody hand with big spots of blood on the floor. I quickly dressed and we raced Calvin up to the hospital where they cleaned up the finger before sending us to the Dr's surgery for stiches! Calvin was very brave at the hospital, though the whole thing made me quite light headed. We also got the see the cut for the first time and it is a whopper! Right down the middle of his finger (on his left hand). When the Dr saw Calvin she suggested no stiches because it is quite stressful and so his wound is just stuck up and well bandaged (as you can see). On top of that Calvin still has a running bottom, poor little guy.

Ahhhhh. Would be nice not to go to the hospital tomorrow! Though Calvin and I will both go to the Dr on Thursday for check ups.
Hope that YOU are all well and safe out there. I think we ave done enough for the whole family. And now it is back to bed with me.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Cruising for a bruising

These bruises just keep getting better.

Awesome, hey?

Michael went to the Magic Cave

Yes we took Michael to the Magic Cave. It was a surprise visit for him, we told him we were just going to the city. We got to David Jones and parked on the same level as the cave, sadly only to be let in at 11.10am, so there went our idea of going up to the level to get to the cave faster! Grinch, I mean Rob, had a good whinge about that in the line ups! We waited in the line up to see Father Christmas for 10 minutes and then, when an assistant put up a sign saying "An hour wait point" miles in front of us, we figured, forget it we will wait for the local shops!
We took Michael inside the Magic cave, and waited almost an hour for him to ride on Nipper (for 2 minutes!!), he also went on the carousel, and had fun with the magic mirrors. He got a balloon, fairy floss and a lucky dip. We then left the cave and went to the food pavillion for lunch, for a walk down Rundle Mall, and then had a look around DJ's and then went back to the Magic Cave floor to leave.
By this point the line up for Father Christmas had dimished as it was around lunchtime, so we decided to give it a go. We waited for 45 minutes and finally got to see Father Christmas. I am glad that we did decide to give it a go, as the Father Christmas we saw was fantastic. The first thing he said was "Is that you Michael? Well you have grown since I saw you last year" He then spoke to Michael for about 5 minutes, and then he had his picture taken with him. The service was very good. Michael was very good in the line up - he just had some behaviour issues that marred the day a little, but all in all, it was definately a great day. We are now very tired (we did grocery shopping afterwards at Colonnades). I will post more images on my blog. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, November 18, 2006

My eventful day.

Oh, how I do love bruises. Today I went over to Port Pirie with a few friends for a birthday party for Caleb. The party was Paintballing! It was quite warm, and I was ridiculously sweaty inside my face mask, but it was awesome. As you can see, I did manage to acquire a few bruises. I've also got one under my other armpit, and down on my lower back, as well as a funny mark on top of my head, where I was struck few glancing blows.

My day was made a bit frustrating, because I twisted my ankle last night as I was bringing Natalie in from the car. We'd had a late night 'cos Debbie had organised a farewell party for Matthew and Sharina Morton, friends of ours who live round the corner. Thursday night our sleep was interrupted on a regular basis by a vomiting Calvin. Then Debbie got up at 5am so she'd be able to finish a video for the party - I think it was 11ish when she got home after packing up the church. Anyway, my ankle is still really sore, and I've been limping around all day - not an ideal situation when you've got people shooting little pellets of pain at you.

Given the difficulty I've been having walking, I was quite surprised at how little I was shot. The bruises you see in the picture (and all of my other bruises, with the exception of the head wound I mentioned) were obtained in the very last firefight. You see, I'd managed to be on the winning side of most of the battles, making a contribution to the very end. (The way it works, is that once a paintball bursts on you, you're out.) But at the end of the day everyone who still had paintballs left had a big all-in "last one standing" battle, and the rules went out the window - while you had paintballs, you could keep shooting other people. It was great fun, going all Rambo on everyone, and running round corners, and into rooms in the face of an onslaught of fire, getting hit, standing ground and returning fire at close range. Awesome fun, and if it wasn't for that, I would have come home without a single bruise, which would have been disappointing, to be frank. (The cluster of bruises you see in the photo were actually put there by one of the judges, who standing on the sidelines as I fired my empty weapon at a callow youth who was cowering in a corner.) Anyway, I WANNA DO IT AGAIN!! Port Pirie is kind of central. How does April work for everyone?

And THEN, on the WAY HOME, the other carfull of guys pulled over in front of us, and one of them hopped out and ran over to us and said "Stuart, Debbie's been taken to hospital in an ambulance." But for that story, you'll need to wander over to the Cozens Blog.

U2

I don't know where to start! The short version would be it was great! Certainly the best show I've been to, great atmosphere and excitement cos U2 really are the biggest band in the world if not the universe. Would have enjoyed it a whole lot more if i didn't sneeze every minute, and nanna and the boys survived their evening too.

The slightly longer version... It was all super! We went with Jules which was great cos she was contagiously excited. My excitement and enthusiasm was slightly dampened by the worry of how the boys would be, and Al seemed to be partying on the inside only (he was a U2 veteran, he saw them at the MCG last time) but Jules had enough for all of us! We had seats about half way between the stage and the back, about half way up the grandstand so were pretty stoked. Great atmosphere! We also had binoculars which were very useful!

There were so many 'best bits' but one of the awful things about something like this (or anything in life really!) is that now it's over and i'm not going to remember every moment, every note, every word. Be great if we could but I guess we'll just have to wait for the tour DVD.
During Beautiful Day they changed the bridge with Adelaide and South Oz references which was so nice! I'm sure somewhere in cyberspace we could find exactly what he said but I can't be bothered today.
In Sunday Bloody Sunday he got a young guy (maybe about 12 years old) to come up and they sat on the stage together. Bono talked about for his generation we need to say 'No more!' to poverty, war etc. Very awesome.
One song had a huge AV presentation thing which was very cool. Apparently the Zoo tour was 2 full on hours of this kinda stuff, and Rattle&Hum was much more acoustic (well as acoustic as a U2 show can be!) but the Vertigo tour was a good mix of both.
At the beginning looking out over the crowd you could see people holding up their phones to take pics or video or whatever. Later on Bono got everyone to get their phones out and make it look like a Christmas tree and it looked gorgeous all glittery and twinkly! And of course then SMS your full name to show your support to the Make Poverty History campaign... then at the end everyone's names were shown on the big screen as a thank you! Well not quite everyones, mine wasn't there but I did recognise 1 or 2. But then after I got home I got an sms from Bono! 'Hi it's Bono... thanks for texting... please go to www.makepovertyhistory.com.au and sign up to be part of the generation that says no to extreme poverty'
There was lots of audience participation singing etc as you'd expect!
Very much liked One (really like that song anyway and it reminds me of Stu! I think cos it was on the first CD I bought and listened to on Stu's CD player. The things you do) And the usual, Desire, Streets have no name, Beautiful Day, Sometimes you can't make it on your own etc etc etc.
So many highlights!
Thats about all I can think of now.

When we got home the house was dark and quiet but Nanna and Sam were asleep in the rocking chair... They did survive the night but there was lots of screaming from a hungry Sam (pity I couldn't express a bit more for him!) It wasn't all bad, there were some giggles too. And Jacob was good.

I certainly did have a cold or something - sneezed so much and was feeling a bit crusty but managed to not get up til 10 on Friday! I fed Sam when we got home about 12, then about 5:30, so was thinking he was having a really big sleep but he'd been up since a bit after 9 playing happily with Jacob and Nanna. Heaps better today just sound a bit shocking.

Thank you Very Very much to Nanna for looking after the boys so we could go! You're worth you're weight in giggles :)

Friday, November 17, 2006

U2 - The verdict?

So Heth how was it? I cant imagine you were too much into Kayne, he doesnt strike me as your sort of artist - but how was he? What sort of tickets did you have - general admin or reserved? We have reserved for Robbie, so I am thinking of rocking up later - never heard of the support act.

About 20 people went from my work went, and only 1 person out of that lot said it was a good show. The rest complained it was too quiet, too gossipy and just not up to par - that would be a disspointment if that were the case given the fact that the tickets cost almost as much as a mortgage repayment! LOL ;)

Looking forward to Robbie in 3 weeks and Jon in 2 - wicked.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Howdy

Just thought I'd say a bit of a hello and fill you in on life in BrockLand... Al's currently handing up his last assignment (Yippee!!!) and after his exam next monday will be all done for the year! Don't worry he won't be sitting round twiddling his thumbs, the list of 'Summer Jobs' is getting very long! I've included fun things like picnic and pedicure as well as the other not quite so fun things (like fixing the fence and moving the little shed) and we've crossed something off already.

Sam seems to have recovered nicely from his cold but is not sleeping through the night as beautifully as he was... Had to feed him twice last night (I did one night last week too) didn't know what had hit me! Can't expect too much I suppose... He'll be 4 months on Friday and is very much on the move now. Started rolling over on Friday and likes to kick and wriggle all over the place. He was lying on the quilt parallel to the couch with his head toward the TV, and wriggled around 180* so he could see the tv... and then a bit more too. Nothing's gonna be the same again! I don't remember Jacob wriggling that much - that's not to say he didn't, but i don't remember. Sam had a great time in his jolly jumper the other day too, and Jacob thought it was great as well!

As you'd expect Jacob has got Sam's cold but doesn't seem too bad really... We've had some good days and some bad days with him in the last week (typical 2 year old stuff i imagine). One of the biggest struggles has been going to bed at night - out of the blue it's turned into a huge battle which is not fun at all! It does seem to be settling down a bit now but he still wants us to stay in there with him a lot of the time. I'm not ready for him to not have an afternoon sleep just yet tho! It was lovely that a particularly horrid day we had was followed by a particularly angelic day - he was back to his gorgeous happy self and as he was headed out the door to Bunnings with Dad he said 'I love you mum!' Was soooo cute and makes it all worthwhile really!

We're looking forward to U2 on thursday night! It's a bit surreal really, it seems to have come around very quick but will be awesome! Sure hope the boys behave for Nanna...

Anyway much love to you all and hope to hear from you soon!
Love Heth

Yippee!

Our move is confirmed .... Allied Pickfords will pick us up Thurs 4/1, and deliver all our wordly possessions to Victor Fri 5th ... hooray!! And VH Removals will deliver all the Gladstone things about 7.30am Fri 5th before the AP truck arrives, so we'll have everything all there together!! I'm SO pleased! And what's even better, storage is only $7.50/week, and collecting our goods and delivering them isn't as much as he thought, so we're probably looking at only about $400 all up! So isn't that terrific?? I'm VERY chuffed!! We'll head for Victor once the truck's loaded here, and will camp in the Manse ... will be fun! So it's all really gonna happen! wow! Now I should go do some packing .... oh, the proper boxes should be here by next week! Bye!

52 sleeps

Well we have some belongings in Victor!! Andrew rang Friday night to say the fellow was collecting our goods, and where did he have to take them! So I imagine by now they're all well and truly installed in storage at Victor, and we'll be "re-united" in a few weeks!
Saturday night we met Lyn and Jeff K at Barmera and had a lovely meal and evening together ... was very spur of the moment, but excellent .... sort of our first "goodbye"! They're good friends ... Jeff was one of Dad's referees, and said the Adare folk had asked is he good at taking time off - they don't want a work-a-holic!! Jeff was pretty stunned at that!! He's never heard of a church doing that before! Very encouraging .... altho I'm not sure if he told a porkie!! Mind you, Dad IS much better at taking time off than he has been before, so that's good!

Dad went out visiting yesterday and came home very snuffly and miserable - he plans to stay in bed today ... well, most of today - he has a meeting at the high school at 11, re chaplaincy, but will be home the rest of the time!
I plan to ring Allied Pickfords to see if they can confirm our moving date yet! And ask when we'll get our boxes! Will keep you posted!
We had some lovely rain yesterday, altho of course not enough to "break the drought"! But the gardens are certainly enjoying it ... still very black ominous looking sky today! But I'll hang my washing out anyway!
Take care! Love you all!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Michael's beanie kids

As promised here is the list of Michael's beanie kids so that incase you wanted to get him one for Christmas, you wont duplicate on what he already has.

This list as it stands at the moment is:

Doodle Doo Peep Googally
Vroom Zena Brainy
Spikey Bamboo Torpedo
Snap Super Beanie Ryan
Bonza Rainbow Otto
Waddle Moggie Gummy
Harley Bouncer Wattle
Scruffy Mosh Pounce
Perry Power Girl G’day
Boris Congo Bongo Ringo
Princess Prickles Jane
Ouch Dot Snozz

Also has:

Beanie Kid Master (in transit)
Rex (at school somewhere!!)
Patty (MIA, but will replace if unlocated!)

Currently bidding on ebay:

Creamy the cow
Prancer the reindeer/prezzie the bear

Hope this helps!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

furniture and Christmas

Hi all! Well at last our furniture from Granny and Grampa's is going to Victor! The Removalist rang and said the truck's on the way to Tennant Creek, and will be back at Gladstone (empty!) on Saturday morning, to collect the sideboard, piano, chest of drawers, and sundry chairs! Andrew's able to go and help the fellow load the piano, so that's great - saves us a trip over there! Then this morning we found out the sideboard is still at John's!! Fortunately he can take it to Andrew's tomorrow, so it will all be collected together ... well ... in two stops instead of 3! The piano's still at the house with the tenant, but the rest is out in Andrew's shed ... all complicated and I'll be VERY glad when we're finally there with all our bits and pieces, from all over! The removalist will store the Gladstone bits for us .... wonder what 2 months storage will cost us?! Guess we'll find out!

There's going to be a "Kitto Christmas" at Maria and Andrew's on Boxing Day, which will be excellent! Maria's asked me to find out who of our lot is likely to be there ..... so please let me know! We plan to go there from Adelaide Tuesday morning, and come home Wednesday to finish packing! It'll be good to catch up with the cousins etc .... but we've got gifts for them all so you don't need to worry about that! Will let you know what the food arrangements are nearer the time!
Take care! Love you all! Mum

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Natalie Update


I had a few people ask how Natalie is getting on with the long days and long week at school and I think she says it best. "I like recess, lunch and EVERYTHING. Reading, writting, drawing, cutting and glueing. My teacher's very nice. I play with my new friends."

Now add a grin on her face and you start to get an idea about her feelings on school. Staurt and I are obviously VERY excited that she likes it sooooooo much, but the really amazing thing is that she is coming homw with so much energy! I thought that she was just want to fall in front of the TV, but she has watched less TV this week than ever before I think. When I collected her yesterday she wanted to go and play down the beach! Will be interesting to see if this level of energy continues.
Anyway, so far school is a fantastic experience for her and we are all very pleased about that.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Wriggly Welcome Home

We've just arrived from our few days in Adelaide, at Synod, and were somewhat startled (to say the least!) to see a snake wriggling across the driveway, a metre or so from the study door, heading from the shed towards the empty block next door ..... via our garden ...... ew!!! Not terribly impressed! Apparently the block next door now has some pegs on it, marking out a new house to be built ... but a few pegs shouldn't have disturbed the "wild-life" that much! I'll be watching my step ve-ry ve-ry carefully!

On a happier note - welcome, Grandad, to the Blog!! We look forward to hearing what you're up to, and are really pleased that you can keep up with what the rest of us are doing too!
Love you all!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Does this look like a Scottish Villan to you??

Well it is! ;)

Michael and I just put his name into Google, and up comes a fair amount of matches and images to a Michael Kitto who was a notorious Scottish viliian! There is also Michael Kitto from Cornwall, and many other pages that we didnt go to.

The things you do whilst waiting for bids to end on ebay, and speaking of which Michael won a bid for the Beanie Kid Master, the rarest beanie kid of them all (and the most expensive I might add :( ) It will arrive from England in a couple of weeks (I hope!). He is very excited! Posted by Picasa

Hilltop Hoods

A little belated, but still better late than never. Here is a picture of Michael waiting in the queue to get into The Gov to see the 'hoods. I think that they actually spent longer in the queue than they did in the venue!
All up they stayed for 5 songs, and Michael had trouble hearing them rap due to the fact that he was wearing ear plugs, and really could only hear the bass apparently. They were home by around 10.30pm, but still its an experience that not many 8 year olds can have!
I'll be at The Gov on November 26 to see Jon live, but Michael will be staying at Granmoo and Opas that night! Posted by Picasa