It's a tough life!

I just thought I would share with you how Stormy is toughing out this wintery weather we are having. Here he is pictured rather comfortably on my bed, under the heating duct today..... 

Don't know about this ....

Don't know whether I'm doing something wrong, or expecting too much .... but what i tried to put on here a few minutes ago isn't appearing yet .... so I don't knwo whether to put it again or wait ..... maybe I'll wait until tomorrow and if it's not there then, will try again! Keep you all in "suspenders", eh?!! ..... not really! Dad's mowing the lawn and about to go for a run .... had another nice sleep this afternoon, after a good sleep-in this morning! But he also re-potted two of our new roses that needed bigger pots, so that's good! I picked a bud off one while I was home last week ... smelt heavenly! Dad also cooked lunch for us today ... nice! Anyway .... bye!

Quilt progress!

.... try this again .... Hi all! I just want to put on record that at last I've made a start on Pumpkin's quilt! It has great potential .... and hopefully soon I'll do some sewing too! It's gonna be BRIGHT!

Michael is sick :( and other medical nightmares

Welcome to being 8 Michael!

Whilst I was at work, I got a call from OSHC saying that Michael was not looking too wel and was complaining of a headache at 4pm. Whilst I was on the phone to the a/d he threw up - not a good thing! I quickly jumped on the phone to Rob, and we headed to OSHC to pick him up.. which of course when you are battling with peak hour traffic and driving from one end of town to the other, is never a fast thing... and dont those trucks just know when is the right time to cut you off and do 10kms/h!!!! Grrrrr

We got to OSHC and he had been throwing up some more, and then proceeded to do more as we were trying to get him out of there! Eventually we got him home and gave him some panadol for his head, and after more throwing up, he has settled to sleep and has been sound for about an hour now. I was disappointed to hear from him that he had been at the office earlier in the day at school and they had neglected to phone me and let me know he was feeling unwell....more grrrr.

Anyway I dare say I will be home with him tomorrow, poor kid. (I might take the opportunity to see if I can get an appointment with my dr this century so I can get a shopping list of referrals to specialists for all of my dramas that you really dont want to know about!!)

On another note my grandma just had surgery to correct a droopy eyelid last week (quite a long bout of surgery too), which was a bit of a rough ordeal for her (she is 91), she had the stitches out today, only to find out that the op had failed and that she will have to endure it over again tomorrow... this alone would be a hard thing for her to put up with, but top it off with the fact that it has been 1 year since my grandfather died... It really hasnt been a good day...

New Col!

About 1:30 this morning Jacob woke up screaming so Al went in and sorted him out. As soon as he stopped crying he asked for 'New Col!'. We bought him a new Colin Buchanan DVD (mummy and daddy were getting a bit sick of the one and only other one we had that gets played VERY regularly) adn ever since then he asks for 'New Col' instead of just 'Col'. 1:30am is not the right time of day though!

He was very sweet once he got up this morning at about 7:30. He was quite happy to play in bed with us and watch cartoons and go and get books and things to entertain himself and let us go back to sleep. He didn't once try to drag us out of bed or open our curtains so we got to get up of our own accord after 9:30! :D Of course once we did get up he stacked a huge mental for some reason... knew we shoulda stayed in bed!

Nanny's coming!

Hooray for Virgin Blue $89 flights! We've booked Nanny to come over to meet her littlest grandchild Thursday August 24th to Tuesday September 5th. No doubt there'll be some form of family celebration during this time but we'll let ya know ;)

Let's try again...

I'll have to see if the computer and Jacob will behave long enough to tell you about our newish office type area! (the simple answer is no, incidently!)

As you may realise having another baby creates a bit of a space issue - as in where are we gonna put it? So the idea has always been to convert the shed (well, 2/3 of the shed) into an office so Al's got space to store all his assorted computer bits and pieces and also somewhere to go to play with them. It is no longer just a dream, Crammy's done all the plans and everything and we've booked in the June long weekend (as in 2 weeks away!) to do it!

I don't wanna be trapsing out to the shed every time i want to send an email or check the blog so the futon's gone into the old office/pumpkin's room and the desk and computer etc has come out into the dining room. Al got a cupboard from church (similar to Mum's teak cupboard and it's ok they were getting rid of it!) for all the paper and envelopes and other associated bits so we've rearranged things to fit it in and so far so good! We may or may not get that lovely closable computer cupboard from Ikea (bit of a $$ thing at the moment) but this seems to be working.

So far Jacob seems happy to do his own thing while I'm on the computer - far more so than when it was in the office - and I'm sure he'll get used to not touching everything adn we'll get used to leaving the mouse and keyboard etc back far enough on the table!

We'll keep you informed on the progress :)

Bugger

I'd just spent ages writing about our new-ish office area and something strange happened and the computer went mental and i lost it all! :( Sorry but i can't be bothered doing it again now, i'm tired and my back's aching and i'm getting cold and i need chocolate!

Here's another random photo i just got off the camera... i'm sure you can work out what it is! I'll try again with some other stuff later :)

And huge happy birthdays to Debbie and Michael!

happy birthday aunty debbie

did you have a good day today?

Don't forget that we are now contributing to THREE blogs

Hey Guys. I just thought I'd let you know that because we are contributing to three different blogs at the moment, it is probably useful (if you want a bigger picture of our lives) to check out the Cozens blog occasionally. We'd planned to just keep using ours, but it doesn't quite feel like we are part of the family if we stay separated (particularly with Lindy on the other side of the planet, so Debbie has been putting a lot of family social stuff on that blog. The link is over on the left, or http://cozensrus.blogspot.com.

(Incidentally, maybe someone in Adelaide could show Grandad how to get on, then he could start sharing what he has been up to.)

Stu

Happy Birthday to you Michael.

We're hoping that you have a WONDERFUL birthday today. It was good to see that you had lots of fun at your party. Natalie and Calvin were sad to have missed it and look forward to the next time they see you.

Lots of love and hugs to you Michael, From Uncle Stuart, Aunty Debbie, Natalie and Calvin.

Happy birthday to Michael and Debbie!!!!

Ok so I am early!!! Today of course, was party day for Michael, and what a day it was!!! It began with Michael almost gouging his eye out - he thought that he could run down the passage carrying some textas, and of course fell, and then hit the top of his eyelid with one of the textas. I dont really think the impact of what he did hit me until a few minutes later.. it was a very close call!

We then went and celebrated his birthday party at maccas, with 15 other very noisy kids! Everyone had fun, although I think Jacob was more than overwhelmed by it all - sorry little guy - but we really appreciated you coming!!! Michael was thoroughly spoilt rotten, and had a fantastic time. I could post a whole heap of images, but I figured that this image summed it all up!

We then had a couple of friends over from my work for a BBQ dinner, so it really made for a big day for everyone.

Debbie I hope that you have a fantastic day tomorrow and that you get spoilt and feel like a princess!

I am now going to unwind and fall asleep reading!!!!
Take care,
Cherie 

Congo-Bongo Kid

thanks for congo-bongo and the ceck 

Playing with new software is fun isnt it?

I wonder if this will work properly?? I downloaded google's software pack upon Rob's recommendation to get Google Earth. In the pack was picture editing package 'Picasa'. I happened to notice whilst having a play that there was an icon on there that had 'blog this' with the blogger icon. From what I can see all you have to do is click on the image and then click on the blog this icon. If this works, this will be great, if not its back to the drawing board!

What you should see if all works, is an image of Michael taken at Mt Lofty restaurant a couple of weeks ago. It was 6C outside and we thought that a nice hot chocolate for him and some lattes for us sounded like a good idea :)

Here goes... 

It's a StakeOut!

Just thought that we'd let you know the the Police just knocked on the door, asking permision to park their patrol car in our drive so that they could wait for a hoon that has been zooming around, and they want to catch him by surprise! WOW how exciting!!!

(The fact that the police officer who knocked on the door is also a guy from church is neither here nor there - it's still cool, even a bit weird to see him with his uniform and gun!)

The Doctor is in the House

THANK YOU very much Cherie, Robert and Michael, the House DVDs arrived this morning. I think that it is fair to say that Stuart and I will be watching some House tonight.

Again thankyou very much for the birthday present.
Hugs and Love from Debbie.

Forgot to mention .... today was "hair and nails" day - the hairdresser was there this morning, and this afternoon some ladies come in and give the residents manicures etc! Dad declined (!), but Mum lined up and now has lovely pink nails!! And then at 3.15 they had "nibbles and drinks" - wine or beer or shandy ..... my goodness!! And Friday afternoon there's a bus trip to Pt Broughton! So they've got some options!

Hi Honeys! Heth's day was crappy, for sure, and ours had the potential to be that too! Last night adn this morning Granny was very confused, and Grampa was just plain grumpy and negative and angry .... I was SO SO glad Elwyn was there too! In fact, as we didn't think it a good idea for her to sleep on the dusty old sb in the pool room, Dad slept there (in his new sleeping bag! .... happy birthday Ian!) and Elwyn and I shared the spare room ..... and we talked until 2am!!! It was such fun .... many years since we last did that! All up about 8 this morn, Dad and Grampa went and collected John's horse float from Georgetown, we dismantled their bed and loaded that and their two good chairs and Grampa's computer desk in the float, bedding clothes computer etc etc in the 3 cars, and got over to Crystal Brook after 11! We had to laugh - today's the day the workers there actually cemented the gutters in all 3 driveways in the place .....(much outside work still happening - car parks etc ... Grampa can "supervise"!) so we had to park in the street and cart everything across a rough building site sort of area, to get inside! But we managed, and I'm sure we'll all sleep well tonight! It was SO good to have Granny come over to us soon after we got there and say "we've got friends here already!", with a big beam on her face! One of the other new residents is a man who used to go to Quarterly meetings with Dad about 30 + years ago! So that was good! Mum and Dad enjoyed their lunch and Mum was keen to get back in and see what we'd got done ... with bed made up, chairs in place (in the other room) and the computer up and running, it seemed much more like home! She sank into her chair adn said "this is SO comfortable!" - and they'd wanted to take the other two little chairs from the lounge, "so the good ones are here for us when we come home!"!! Elwyn headed home and we returned John's float to Georgetown, collected another good small chair from Gdstn, returned the car to Dad, and were very pleased to see him giving cheek to one of the staff! We're much more optimistic tonight about the prospect of them staying, than we were last night! This morning we asked Mum which photos they wanted to take (having bought a notice board at officeworks for them to put the photos from the fridge on!) and she chose one of her and Dad, adn said what a handsome couple! And "these all have to stay here and be just like that when we come home!" ....... so time will tell! I think we left Gladstone about 5, and as I considered the hot dogs, hamburgers, chinese, another hot dog, vegemite roll, pasta packet etc that have been my meals over the last 5 days, we stopped at Morgan and had a counter tea ..... HUGE schnitzels parmi ..... very nice!! I've unpacked the new towels, sheets, quilt cover ready to wash tomorrow, and am about ready for bed .... talking until 2 isn't my usual practice! .... not to mention helping with a rather fraught move!
Hope that, for all of you, tomorrow's just a bit better than today .... or a LOT! Love you all! xxx

At the other end of crappy days scale... The fun of being a parent

Well Heth I agree, today was pretty crappy..
It actually started with yesterday and then almagamated into today.

Rob had his meeting with his senior manager and basically found out nothing new, and only confirmed his thoughts that his senior manager is a ..... and has zero people skills, and that really things are never going to change in his workplace. His immediate manager took him out to lunch today, so that was a bit more lighthearted than yesterday's effort, and shows that he is a valued employee.

Michael is 8, almost. I know you guys are aware of that, but there is something to consider in that.. He is growing up. He is now forming his own beliefs, his own opinions, he hurts in his own ways and he sees the world through his own eyes and not with the guidance I would like anymore. Tonight Michael and Rob had their first (of many to come), tiffs. It was over something trivial like guitar practise. But it made me realise so much about parenting in that one little moment. Michaels tears were through frustration that he couldnt be all that his Dad wanted him to be, even though Rob kept on stating - do it for you; Michael was getting frustrated at himself.

Michael scares me sometimes with just how deeply he looks at the world and how he wants everyone to love him and to make it a better place for everyone. Its a very deep thought focus for someone so young. He is extremely wanting of everyone to feel at ease and happy, even if it is at the price of his own comfort, which I am sure that all of you have experienced with him at sometime.

I am off to lie down and ponder how I will deal with the next 10 years (at least!)

PS: I went in to watch Michael whilst he was asleep tonight and listened to him snore lightly and whispered to him that no matter what, I am always proud of him and what/who he is.

We had a feral day today...

It started way too early for a start - 5 past 6 Jacob was very upset about something. Seeing I had to get up for work then anyway I went in and he wanted to go nigh nigh with daddy... of course that didn't work, he didn't understand that it was still sleep time but mum was having a shower. I put him back in his bed and shut the door and left for work and think he screamed for a while and perhaps had a bit of a rest.

Work was good - I was at Ashford and they only needed me til 11 but it was a pleasant 4 hours.

Then I got home.

I think it had been a long morning for them with a lot of tears and a very tired boy. Went with the very tired mum and dad too! Jacob slept for an hour after lunch, and Al was snoozing on the couch and I was snoozing on the bed. Ashley rang about the computer dramas they were having at church (which were getting worse) so Al finished his power nap and went to save the day or something.

Jacob spent most of the afternoon driving me up the wall! He'd ask for something, so I'd get it for him, then he'd go ballistic and run around screaming and throwing himself on the floor/couch/mum cos he really didn't want that. I don't understand! And because it was so freezing (only 12* in Adelaide today! And 4* overnight! Glad i'm not in Renmark tho, -2* is a bit wrong) I didn't want to take him outside. He spent a while wanting me to hold him while he put his shoes in the drawer, then on top of the drawer, then back in the drawer about 50 times but he's getting heavy and I'm getting big! He also seemed to want to eat all the time but didn't want anything I suggested (he's not eating lollies all day!). He's going through a stage of asking us to put on Colin to watch, then within 5 minutes of it starting saying 'No Colin! Bob!' or vice versa. This is indecisive to the extreme!

And of course Al found out he didn't get the job which is crap! Knew it was too good to be true...

When he got home from the office he was exusted and feeling very crap and just wanted to lie down. Then he threw up and was in bed by 5. I'm sure he'll be much better after a decent sleep.

Jacob wasnt' completely horrible all day. For a while he was happy to do some drawing and play with the bin and push Roley along the floor and he did sit for maybe 15 minutes watching Colin. He likes green at the moment and still loves making towers and knocking them over (except when he neatly takes them apart 1 by 1 and puts them back in the bucket!). And this morning I had a real phone conversation with him while i was at work!
'Hi Mummy!'
'Hi Jacob how are you?'
'Good'
'Are you being a good boy for Daddy?'
'Ummmmm yes'
'Good!'
'Bye Mummum!'

And now Al and Jacob are both in bed asleep, Pumpkin's doing the tap dancing somersalt routine again, the fire's almost keeping me warm, the dishes are half done (got interrupted this arvo, can't think why!) and I'll probably go and fall asleep in front of the telly. It's a good thing we don't have days like this too often! And VERY MUCH looking forward to our night away!

BTW the photo is of Jacob's Tim Tam induced screaming episode - not today but may as well have been!

AND!

As soon as I hit 'Publish Post' the phone rang...
He didn't get it :(
Bugger crappy bum!

Still Waitng...

Al still hasn't heard about the job yet...

Peter Gunn (principal at PWC who's known Al for ages and thinks he's wonderful!) rang this morning when Al was in the shower and said he was in meetings all day but would ring him again when he got a chance. Easy enough for him to be busy and not sitting around all day waiting for the phone to ring! Trying not to think about it is easier said than done... But we'll keep you informed!

Maybe it's a good thing that Jacob's been grumpy AS today - could have something to do with the fact that he was awake at 6am and wanted to play and unfortunately only slept for 1 hour this arvo (as opposed to the 3 hours in care yesterday!). He's currently going through the bin in the lounge (charming child) but is relatively happy so who am i to complain!

New news at the Kitto blog

Just a quick post to let you know that there are a few new posts on Debbie and Stuart's Blog. (Debbie has been printing off photos to go around the house, and some (like this one) look better in Sepia than colour.)

I think I remember this place ...

Hi Honeys! It's kinda nice to be home, even briefly! We had a good trip home and got here 11pm last night .... and we'll leave again about 3 this afternoon to go back to Adelaide for dad's meeting tomorrow! Then we'll go to Gladstone, and help Granny and Grampa move to Crystal Brook for their 4 week "trial period". I think it's REALLY good that Elwyn will be there too! I found out this morning that we're coming home Tues evening! So I'll have ALL DAY wednesday home .... dare say I'll find something to do! Beter go n get some lunch, n bring the washing in, finish re packing etc ...... hope you're all good, or at least as good as you can be!
Love you all! Nanna/Mum

A sweet awakening

Early this morning i heard footsteps and thought it may have been Dad getting up. Next thing i hear 'Hi Mummum!' Thought he might have been at the door with nanna but he was standing right next to my bed! It was very cute... He's well and truly mastered the art of walking in his growbag - as he just demonstrated - Nigh night Jacob!

HTML is a wonderful thing!

In answer to Cherie, the only way to add links (or anything apart from posts and commentsfor that matter) to the blog is by editing the html page template. Anyone who wants to do that can either

• email the links to me and I'll do it, or
• ask me to give you admin rights, and do it yourself, (if you know what you are doing.)

The only thing to be carefull of, if you have admin rights, is that changing the template gets rid of all of the customisations. (links, flickr badge, statcounter, that kind of thing) so please make sure you can put it all back on. When it says "Changing the template will get rid of customisations" those are the bits they are talking about.

g'day

it was fun
michael

Hey how do do you post links to this site like the ones on the right?

I think it would be kinda nice to promote links that everyone is into, that way it could give us a better understanding into what makes us tick a little more. Ok I am a give away as to what link I am going to post up there, but does anyone have any idea which sites Rob frequents when he netsurfs etc - would be interesting to see what we waste our time on when we are on the net! :)

(Also a little self promotion never hurt anyone!)

Welcome Cherie to the land of blogs!

Hey there everyone,
Well I am on a roll almost 24 hours of my computer understanding that internet should work on ALL sites, rather than selected ones!
It was great to have you all over our place last night - I think it was good therapy for Rob to be with his people on his side when he is feeling more than challenged at the moment....

Where are the photos?

Come on guys, where are your photos from last night? By the way, we made it home okay. (Home before midnight, so pretty happy with that.)

New Post on Whyalla Blog

Hey Guys, just thought I'd let you know there is a new post on our family blog. (The link is on the right next to this.) I figure that if we let you know about new posts, via this blog, it'll make your lives easier.

Tissue

Last night Jacob was sitting on my lap rubbing his nose and suddenly said 'Tissue!' So I got him one and sure enough he had a big booger up there! Got rid of that in a hurry :)

Yay!

What a fabulous and easy way (well, maybe easy, we'll see how we go!) to let you all know Al's got a job interview 10:15 Friday for the Administrator's position at Parkin Wesley College. The usual prayers would be much appreciated:) (Mum, looks like you get to babysit again if i'm at work!) And we look forward to letting you know how it goes.

I'm here!

Well I made it! Sounds like a good idea, Stu .... we'll give it a go!
Today's been good so far ... altho church was harder today than last week. A friend who lost an 18 year old daughter to asthma a few years ago gave me a hug and said it DOES get easier .....
Would you be surprised to know I'm about to go and sew??!

Mothers' Day

This morning was different. Apart from having hassles with my laptop not starting so the powerpoint was in danger of not happening, all I did was play my guitar and be a pewsitter. different from usual!

I've got to stop sticking these drugs up my nose

I think Debbie said we've got lots of Lego lately? We have. Lots and Lots. (Hey, it's better than taking drugs, right?)

This is the kind of thing we call all do, and it is very easy. The choice is yours - use this blogspace or start your own!

I joined

Well after 4 attempts at a user name I succeeded and joined up

What do think?

Well guys? A few licks of paint, a bit of renovation and it'll be great! Come on! You can use this to tell us what you are up to, how you are feeling, share photos - all that kind of stuff. I've just set one of these up for the Cozens family and thought it would be a good idea for us too. (Here is a link, so you can see the demo entries I wrote over there.) http://cozensrus.blogspot.com/

So sign up and join up!