Thanks!

Thank you very much Aunty Debbie, Uncle Stu, Natalie, Calvin and Isabelle for my yummy Easter egg you gave me... Mum and I enjoyed it very much thank you, I'm still dancing from it!
Lots of love from Pumpkin and I look forward to meeting you all very soon! (It'll be nice to be out, it's getting a bit squishy in here...)

Thanks, Grandad

Dear Grandad,

I like the letter you sent me, and I’ve got some new songs that I’ve been singing to mummy and daddy. I’ve been so busy. I’ve been thinking that I like garlic bread.

I made an instrument at Kindy today. It is a shaker. That’s all there is to say.

Goodbye, have a lovely day.

Natalie Kitto

When we showed Jacob this photo we said 'Isn't he gorgeous!'... He looked at it and said 'Yes!'
He loves looking out the window and chatting to Daddy when he's out working on the shed - there's lots of 'Hi Dad! Hi Dad!' which brings a smile to many faces :)

Mmm Coffee...

Jacob very kindly helped Nanna with her coffee this morning, spooning the milk into her mouth and even wiping her chin! What a helpful little man :)

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday Daddy

That's what we sang this morning (and tonight!) as we celebrated Al's Birthday. I think he had a good day as he commented. We couldn't find his pressie at Harbour Town (overalls - found some but they were all the wrong size and for some reason he didn't want white ones!) but enjoyed browsing for a while (well... Mum and I did!). Of course Gloria Jean's Coffee is always a nice treat, then we came home and at 6pm had yummy Black Forest Cake I'd made this morning, and enjoyed our yummy roast dinner at 6:45! A bit backwards but yummy anyway and Jacob seemed to enjoy his 2 min noodles. Al also got some more stuff done in the shed which is always good ;) Tomorrow night we're going Gold Class to see The Da Vinci Code which will be lovely! Using the gift vouchers I got for mother's day to celebrate Al's birthday is just extending the joy. Seeing we're both not on the roster tomorrow night (very rare but very good) we'll be able to duck out early and easily. Al will be at church all morning, then staying for BBQ lunch with the UC President at Ashley's, so it's been lovely to have a nice day together today. And tonight...? Just a quiet one sorting out stuff for tomorrow and reading and watching Superman 3!
(Sorry but blogger's being a bit stupid and not loading photos for me at the moment so I'll try again tomorrow)

Happy Birthday to ... AL!

We're jumping for joy here, in rememberance of your birhtday!
Hoping you all the best for your birthday today Al, and may you find the perfect balance of rest and fun on this YOUR day.
Love and thoughts from your Whyalla family.
Stuart, Debbie, Natalie and Calvin.

We're getting the band back together

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing

well I don't know ...

This is frustrating .... I just tried to make a comment on Heth's last entry, and it wouldn't let me in! It said my password wasn't valid ... or something ..... maybe it's just too early! And now of course I have no idea what my comment was gonna be!! Oh well ..... I wish my sore back wasn't! Sounds like the Socceroos are gonna make it to the next stage .... wow .... bet you never thought you'd see your mother commenting on soccer!!

Oh Dear...

We had a very sad little man here this morning... When Jacob woke up, after calling out to Mummy for a while he wanted Nanna. 'Nanna! Nan! Nanna! NANNA!!!' He was very upset that Nanna wasn't here and didn't want to come in to us at all. I suggested he talk to Nanna on the phone and that calmed him down for a minute ('nan phone') but changed his mind before we dialled. Strange!
I'm not sure where that all came from... Before he went to bed I'd been telling him a few things that are gonna happen soon - Nanna will come and stay for a while, and mummy has to stay in hospital for a while to get Pumpkin out of my tummy, and you'll all come and visit etc. So perhaps he got confused and thought Nanna was coming now. He'll be pleased to see her tomorrow!

Speaking of Jacob in the mornings... Yesterday just after I'd turned the light off to go out the front door to go to work I hear this 'Hi mum'... He scared the pants off me! I didn't want to trip over him or anything but eventually convinced him it was still night time but mummy had to go to work so you go NighNight with Daddy - so we carefully walked up the passage in the dark and he got into my bed but he got very upset cos he wanted mummy to go nighnight! He wasn't the only one ;)
I did get excited though when i was getting up, cos the next time I need to be at Flinders by 7am (or anywhere for that matter!) it'll be to have my baby!

Cavin Update

Goodmorning. I was organised today and took the camera to Calvin's speech session. For an actual update on that please refer to our blog.

Our Blog

Now that I'm officially on maternity leave, we've got a blog on msn... i've no idea how it works or how to do it or anything but imagine a bit of trial and error's in order!
http://thebrocklehursts.spaces.msn.com/
(sorry you'll have to cut and paste it cos i don't know how... but i'm sure Stu can put a link on the side thingy?)

YIPPEE It's Official!!!

Hooray, as of now I'm OFFICIALLY on maternity leave! :D

I survived my last shift very nicely - was specialling a patient so spent most of the day sitting reading mags - and even though none of the staff seemed to care I was leaving I was happy anyway.

And then I came home and found a wall up in the shed! Looks like Al and Ash have been busy (I think there's some discussion about leaving a section of the internal wall open and putting a door in but I'm not exactly sure.)

So it's been a good day all round!

Thankyou

Thankyou mum and dad K for the beautiful flowers. I can hardly believe that it has been two months already. It has really been just a blink of the eye.
The timing of delivery was perfect. It was this time twelve months ago that I received a phone call from my dad to say that Uncle Trevor had passed away. So I was watching his funeral video when I had the beautiful flowers delivered to my door. Thankyou very much.
(It is hard to see in this picture, but the flowers are actually HUGE. Really lovely)

More Shed Stuff

Well things are certainly progressing - slowly but surely :) All of the gyprock around the external walls and ceiling is in place (thanks to extra help from Dad & Dave, and Ashley's coming round to help tomorrow too) and at the moment Al's out there starting on the frame work for the internal wall. So once that's done it's just the patching and painting and carpet and skirting board and cornice and electrical stuff (which Crammy is gonna come and do on Sat 1st of July) - all the 'cosmetics'. And then fitting it out with cupboards or shelves or whatever. And then moving everything else out there that needs to go. And then sorting out the baby's room... etc etc etc!

We also got a quote to get built in robes in our room (something i've dreamed about for years!) and today the sales manager rang back to see what else he could do to help us - he wasn't keen to halve the price like i suggested but did manage to drop it down nicely for us... So we'll see what happens there! And if we do order it this week they'd try to install it in the next 4 weeks or so for us ;) Of course I'll have nothing else to do then so what better way to fill in time than sorting out built in robes! *sigh*

AND Hooray I've only got one shift to go! That'll be nice :) And with Jacob still going to child care 1 day a week I might actually be able to get something done occasionally... but i won't push it of course.

He was quite a sweet little fella most of the day today (apart from a couple of hours when he went a bit feral and didn't know what he wanted... but we survived by him sitting on my legs watching bob and various other things on the computer... until he wanted the keyboard and mouse...). But he did eat well and nicely - just the ham from his toasted sandwhich for lunch followed by 2 kiwi fruit and a mandy, then after Al got home he asked for an apple and I had to stop myself from saying 'no wait a little bit and have some cake with us'. He did sit up at the table with his apple and entertain us while we had our coffee which is always cute. And then he was happy to sit at the table and have dinner with us too, and he ate his whole bowl of pasta and his yoghurt adn didn't complain or get upset at all! That hasn't happened for a while so it was a very pleasant change.

He wanted me to make a tower with him after lunch and while i was complaining about getting on the floor he got one of his little chairs to sit on which was very kind of him! Then he lined up the rest of his chairs (as he does) and was sitting opposite me and held my hands and was saying 'p ...' something i wasn't sure what but THEN i realised he wanted to say prayers! So we did and every so often he'd come back and grab my hands and say 'more prayer' which was just lovely, and after that he was happy to walk up to his room and go nigh night and did without a peep (also hasn't happened for a while, during the day at least) and stayed there for 55 minutes. Better than not at all!

Anyhoo... I shall go back out to the fire and see if i've got the energy to fold the clothes adn i need to put the clean sheets on the bed too... Al bought a $4 cake from Coles again (and the bread's nearly finished) so I look forward to something sweet when he comes in :)

Hope you're all well... I'll put up more shed photos sometime but in the mean time here's some Jacob.
xox

mmm mmmm

Lovely hot shower .... delicious!!

water .... and tickets!

Hi All ..... it's chilly here this morning, not helped by having NO HOT WATER !! Brrrr! Dad discovered that a switch in our meter box had switched itself off, so he turned it back on ... and now, a couple of hours later, the water appears to be heating .... but why did it turn itself off??!! I have to go out every hour or so today and check that this switch is still on and that doovey is still turning around and the pipe is still getting warm .... and ring him if the answer to any of those questions is no!
Anyway .... I've just spent an hour on Firefox and the phone, and we have tickets for Heth Sue and me to go to The Boy from Oz ..... yippee!! There were better tickets available (for the same money) at the afternoon session so I checked with Al that he'd be happy to mind the littlies in the afternoon instead of the evening! He said that's OK .... so we have tickets!! Or we will in a week or so when they arrive!
Dad thoroughly enjoyed the Walk on the weekend - of course! (and it appears John coped with the women Ok! ... and Rita was well and truly a blessing in the prayer chapel!) Altho it sounds as tho it was a bit different from most previous ones .... but the pilgrims all looked and sounded pretty happy at Closing yesterday, so that's good! Jenny C was Support Director, adn Rob provided some unexpected drama by falling through/from/out of a manhole cover at work on Friday! He badly dislocated his right shoulder, carted off to hospital, etc etc .... but by some miracle (!?) when the expert came to check him out before operating to fix it, surgery wasn't required after all ... wow! He's still pretty sore and annoyed and frustrated, but looking forward to a week of catching up on his reading! We had tea with him n Jenny n Ellie n Josiah, and Moyra and Jim, n Phil and Kathy before we came home last night .... Dad Jim n Rob shared a nice bottle of red, so i drove! Bye!

Cold, but pretty.

I hope that you are keeping warm on this FREEZING day. -2.4 degs here in Whyalla this morning at 7:30am (though the Elders wesite said that it felt like -6!). Just thought that I'd share our pretty weeds with you, Well, if you're going to have weeds for the base of your garden, they may as well look pretty in freezing temperatures! It may also be a few hour before the kids are able to jump on the tramoline, as you can see, this ice will need to melt off! Stay warm. :)

The Boys

Here's Jacob and Jaydon enjoying the action yesterday... ;)

The Shed Weekend #5

I'm sure you're all dying for an update... Unfortunately it didn't get finished on the weekend (but hopefully it will sometime in the next 5 weeks!). Most of the insulation and gyprock is up but there's still a few sections to go... the door's in (I don't think its got a lock or a handle yet) and the window's in... and i've no idea what else!
I was at work yesterday so missed most of the activity - luckily Laine came round to help with Jacob so Al could do some stuff too. I haven't actually been out there since they packed up yesterday!
There is stuff Al can do by himself and I think the theory is that he'll do what he can while Jacob's in care tomorrow, then Mum and Dad will come down tomorrow night so Dad can help Al in the morning before he goes up the hill to Emmaus. Crammy's busy for the next couple of weeks so I have a feeling the hunt is on for another laborour or 2 - all offers gratefully recieved!
I think once the insulation and gyprock is finished on the walls and roof and internal wall, there's the cosmetic stuff to do - like painting, skirting boards, carpet, power points etc, not to mention fitting it out with shelves/cupboards/desks etc and moving everything else out there
so we can sort out the baby's room! I'm sure it'll happen sometime...

The Shed Weekend #4

So what's happened today...? So far - nothing! Al's not back from Church yet but he was going to Bunnings on the way home (maybe that counts as shed related?). Hopefully he hasn't got too lost or distracted!
When all the prep work has been done the rest should happen quite quickly so they tell me... and if it looks like it won't all get done in time they'll leave the internal wall for another day.
So for the moment - that's about it!

Ok I'll stop now!!

But I love this one, its a cold front about to hit taken late last year. There are more from this series, including the full band of cloud as it is rolling in - very spectacular. 

pretty......

Sunset from November last year 

This isnt an entry possibility!!!

I just wanted to show you the amazing sunrise we had on Thursday morning. The camera really doesnt do it enough justice as it was redder than this. I could play around in photoshop to get the colours right - but I really cant be bothered! LOL
Pretty.................. 

Images...

I have been taking a lot of images of scenery lately, getting ready for the Loxton Show entries that I promised I would create last year!! I figured that Dad needed a little competition from a Kitto-in-law! After much deliberation on a subject, I figured sun shots are always a good topic...
People poses are always good, but I tend to like nature, although a people pose that would have made good photographic material would have been Dad's face when he got out of the Astra after adding a new texture to the right hand side (Bit of a sore point around here at the moment as none of us have the time to take it to the crash repairers for quotes, and we REALLY need to sell it ASAP).... Anyway.....
This image was taken at the entry point on the Southern Expressway by Panalatinga Road this evening on the way to the drive-in. I dont think its too bad considering we were in a moving car! I need to get some more decent practise in! 

Home again

It's kinda nice to be home! But we did have a lovely time in Whyalla - thanks for the company, and the meals and the "loan" of your kids, Debbie n Stu! And thanks for the Blog photos too, Debbie ..... I think! We had a good trip home, spending some time with Granny and Grampa on the way, and with Elwyn and Paul, who'd just arrived! Which reminds me - James adn Pru announced their engagement last weekend, and I forgot to tell you all! And today Elwyn said Alicia and Brett are expecting again ..... not sure when - it's VERY new "news"! Granny and Grampa seem to be really good, and sounding more as tho they're likely to stay - Grampa says it's like a 5 star motel! They get fed every 5 minutes, and he's so busy he doesn't have time to get to his diaries!! But he also says they'll never get another chance like this .... so I'm anticipating they'll stay! Two more weeks of teh "trial period" tho, so we shouldn't count our chickens n all that!
We got home about 6, and it took me quite a while to check both the Blogs, and sort my 38 emails - actually that bit didn't take long at all, as about 30 were spam! I've got the footy on, and the Crows have just got ahead, so I'm enjoying it a bit more now! Time to go and sit on top of the radiator, I think .... I'm SO cold! Hope you're all doing well! Love you all!

The Shed Weekend #3

The end of the first day and i think there are some sore tired guys around somewhere! Perhaps when Al's got a bit more time and energy he may fill you in with a bit more detail about the day but for the moment i'll give it a go (as much as i understand, at least).

# All the framework around the edge of the shed is done (not yet done the bit that will be the new wall)
# Al went to the salvage yard and bought a new window for $10 that is a little more weather proof and secure, and took the old window out
# They cut a ginormous hole for the new door (also from the salvage yard)

I'm sure there may be more but I don't know what! I do know that Luci and I had a lovely afternoon veging together (she cut my toenails for me like the true friend she is!) and it was nice to catch up with Laine and Jaydon for a while too. Jacob had fun helping them sweep and once they moved the swing from under the window it was great and easy to keep an eye on proceedings! (Lots of 'Hi Dad! HI DAD!')

Not sure how tomorrow will go. Crammy's got some uni stuff he has to do so he might not make it at all, so there's a big list of jobs for Al (and I know how many hours he's usually home on a sunday! ie 3). All back into it on monday of course ;)

On a completely different topic, Al just submitted his application for Uni (Bachelor of Arts/Education - Middle school) so that's exciting! At this stage i'm not gonna think to much about the fact that semester 2 lectures commence 24th of july and our official due date is 30th july... There's a few other things in the wind too... ;)

Anyway it's getting cold in here and the footy's getting exciting so I'm gonna go. Catch ya all later!

Pre Weekend Shed stuff

How clean and tidy was the shed! And how not-so was the rest of the place! Everything that was in there had to go somewhere... like the little shed, the back deck, the car port... Won't be forever tho and we've been lucky we haven't had much rain!

The Shed Weekend #2

Yay! It's happening!
The truck safely arrived at 8:55 and Crammy was here not long after. So things are going on. Someone else just arrived and i have no idea who he is but he was looking for Craig so I'm sure it's all good. (turns out he's the guy delivering the electrical stuff we got at mates rates 50% off!) I can hear the grinder and see the sparks and they all look like they're having fun!

The Shed Weekend #1

Well it's not off to a very good start. All the building materials were meant to be delivered at lunch time so when the truck hadn't arrived by 4 Al rang to find out what the story was. And apparently the stuff was still in the yard and hadn't even left yet! Something about being busy for the long weekend or something... So seeing Crammy will be here ready to start at 9 they PROMISED to have the stuff here and unloaded before 9am. Gonna be an early coffee for us!

Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive than today - we sat around waiting and completely wasted the afternoon! Although I think Jacob enjoyed sitting watching The Wiggles with mum AND dad ;)

A bum of a holiday

I think this was a very brave thing for Nanna to do!

Apart from riding Nanna semi-naked the kids enjoyed an outing with Nanna and Grandpa this morning to the shops. Thanks for the clothes Nanna and Grandpa. And Stuart and I enjoyed our coffee out this afternoon. It's great to have grandparents around!

Yeah this is working again!

Not to be left out, I made sure that Nanna got some chocolate cake while she was in Whyalla. Look Jacob, Nanna can eat cake just like you.

Whooa whooa whooa cake!

As you can see the fresh chocolate mud cake with Irish cream, served warm with cream, was very yummy! Jacob especially enjoyed it and stayed surprisingly clean.

Just wanted to tease you a bit! Not bad from Coles ;)

At the Pool with Grandpa

...and Nanna (She was the one who took the photos from the safely dry side of the pool).

Yes, today we went to the pool and Natalie got to try out her new goggles and although Calvin is a bit under the weather, he enjoyed floating around in the warm water. Gotta love heated pools. Sadly the change rooms aren't heater. "Brrrrrr cold" to quote Calvin.
It's great having Nanna and Grandpa to stay.

Angels and Pirates

The big thing in our house at the moment is dressing up. The kids are really into it. Uncle Trevor's wooden chest has finally made it into the house and now sits at the bottom of Natalie's bed full of dressing up things. We added the angels wings and pirate stuff on Monday. Calvin also has what he calls his "king" outfit and Natalie has numerous princessy things.

We are not old but this system is...

Well I will try again!
We called in on Granny and Grandpa at Crystal Brook on our way to Whyalla. they didn't know we were comingj, and the staff had set a table for us to have lunch with them in a cosy little room. When we arrived they fetched them and they were surprised to see us. after a nice anniversary lunch, and chat, we headed for Whyalla. (I had a sleep on the way of course.)

Dad was reasonaably happy there. He asked us several times if they should stay, and said that while they could go home (to Gladstone) he recognised that they would never be likely to get as nice a place to move to later. Mum was happy and would be happy whereever. she taught the ladies the Birdie Dance at keep fit exercises the other day. Dad was not doing much on the computer - he even said that after he turned it off and on again it behaved itself.

More on Whyalla later - Stuart has been installing age of empires 3 on my new toy which we are both impressed with and have netnorked wirelessly to Stu and Deb's computer and internet. thanks!

We're not old

We're not old

ARRIVED!

Nanna and Grandpa have arrived (and we hope that they don't regret it!)(they're saying "no" [at the moment!!!])

We're off to Whyalla today, adn looking forward to lots of cuddles and games ... with some pirates and angels, i think!! We're gonna surprise Granny n Grampa and have lunch with them today too - it's their 59th wedding anniversary! Wow! I hope to get them some flowers, maybe in Burra, on the way! I'm sure you'll all miss my emails, blog entries etc etc ...... but i'll be back! Love Mum

Happy Birthday 'Pappa' from Jacob

'HI PAPPA! Hi Pappa! Hi Pappa! Tower... hot fire truck... coffee... New Col... Lola... Hi Pappa! HI PAPPA!'

(Telling you he built a tower, coloured in a Fireman Sam picture, we sat and had coffee, he's been watching the new Colin DVD, he wants to watch Charlie and Lola, and Hi Pappa! All done, of course, while walking around holding a phone to his ear.)

Hope you had a super birthday and got spoilt a bit without needing to work too hard.
We love you!

Love Jacob

Happy Birthday Grandpa from Natalie

That you might have a lovely time, and I always like you. I drawed a picture of you and a flower. Pizza - I don't like it! Happy Birthday.

Natalie.

Happy Birthday Grandpa From Calvin

Hap Berfday Gammpa.

New Toys in Whyalla

We bought Singstar 80's on Thursday and today I hired Singstar Rocks and singstar pop - lots of fun. Natalie enjoyed singing Robbie William's "kids" with me. She said that she would know the other songs when she was a grown up like us.
It was almost looking like I might have to have another boring night, but Dave saved us and agreed to come around and sing without shame with us. I am pleased to say that I consistantly beat Stuart and Dave, so I am feeling mostly good about my ablility to have good pitch :)

[Check out Captain Calvin on the Kitto Blog]

Deb.

Hmmm...

Well Jacob seems to like having the computer out here - as you can see! Handy to keep him happy while we cook dinner but unfortunately likes to do this quite regularly, even if mummy is using the computer... And he can reach the power button a bit too easily as well!

We're certainly getting stuff sorted out here but it's still gonna take time. We all get very easily distracted and have someone who loves to do what mummy and daddy do so we've got to pick our moments!

The shed looks amazingly different but that's Al's story to tell... ;)

More updates to follow!
xox

Some things just take time...

Yes, I got a new work toy. It works well so far. I'm pleased with it. I was able to transfer all the old files and settings with only one minor interruption... like forgetting to change the power settings so that when it was half way through the new computer shut itself off. And I didn't need to seek help from Pasadena P(Al).

Well, time for a run.

(by the way, I've finished next week's sermon already, again...)

new technology = excitement ... for some!

Great excitement here ..... Dad's new computer has just arrived and he's like a kid with a new toy! Funny, that! Should keep him out of mischief for a while! I'm off shopping!

God is Good!

Crammy came round last night to make sure he had all the plans for the shed etc ok. Then he rang Al today and estimated the cost of materials etc as $1500 which is quite a lot more than Al had originally thought!

So it's very wonderful that the other day we got a cheque from Mother B for $1000 and today we got a cheque from Ma and Pa K for $500. God is indeed good! And thank you parents for being open to be used by God like this ;)