Our own blog

It was always going to happen in the end I guess! I have begun to create our own blog at msn. The address is http://noiseworker.spaces.msn.com/ I figured that way we wern't cluttering up the family blog with so much stuff! Hopefully I can get Rob to post on there as well :)

Catching some zzzzz's

After Sam wanting to be fed every 2 - 3 hours all day and night wednesday, yesterday he was back to more like 4 hours AND last night too! (for part of the night at least). So I know that I actually did get 3 solid hours sleep in a row which was great! I fed him about 5:30 then 9:30 this morning and even Jacob slept in til 1/4 to 8 which hasn't happened for ages! That could have something to do with Jacob not having a sleep yesterday arvo and after screaming for about 45 min now I think he might finally have a sleep today.

Yesterday we went to the shops - I'd been getting a bit stir crazy in the house and Jacob was well over due for a hair cut (and Target has 50% off the already reduced price of winter clothes!). Sam slept through his whole first outing and Jacob cried crocodile tears and held mummy's hand through his hair cut. He looks so spunky and grown up! No photos yet, think we're slacking off a bit there...

So we're certainly doing pretty well at the moment (and I finally got orgainsed to put Sam's birth notice in the paper for tomorrow).

The good and the bad...

Ya know haw you have some days that are good and some days that are not good? Well today's been one of the not quite so good ones. I think the last 10 days of getting very interrupted sleep has finally caught up with me and i feel like crap! I must admit I do feel better now than i did this morning but having a horrible headache all day really hasn't helped things. Jacob's in care today so mum sent me back to bed and just brought Sam in when he needed feeding. So of course today he's been feeding every 2 1/2 hours unlike the last few days. Apart from now when he's having a big sleep but i've been up waiting for the midwife! Ya just can't win.

On a better note, the midwife just came and we're very pleased to report that Sam put on 80g (since monday) now making him 2640g. She's very happy with how he's doing and how I'm doing and was very encouraging and supportive which is nice too. We don't need to keep him on a 4 hourly feeding limit any more so will just feed him when he wants it so maybe tonight he'll go for 5 hours! Or maybe I'm dreaming...

PS...

Forgot to say YAY for me for being on top of the footy tips!
*big cheesy grin*

OOH 10 grams!

A small weight gain but better than nothing. The midwife will come again on wednesday so hopefully between now and then Sam can turn into a big boofa baby... or maybe that's unlikely but hope he's at least put on some more weight! Today he's been waking more often for a feed which is good and we did have a better night last night. We've got the house to ourselves at the moment which is very lovely! Jacob's at child care, Nanna's off with Pappa, Daddy's at Uni (survived the first lecture quite well and sounded happy when i spoke to him) and Sam and I just sat on the swing out the back and enjoyed the sunshine. He went to sleep as you do when you're a week old and after I've cut up the vegies for dinner I'm gonna have a snooze too! Trust all is well wherever you are :)

My Grand son(s)

It is a cruel hard world out here. And I wonder just what Sam is thinking! It looks like a good 'Write a caption' photo...

And I also found on some slides I scanned images like these:
Sorry Heth!

My Boys

I'm just demonstrating to Dad how to put photos on the blog so thought you might like to see some of my boys! Wonder what they're thinking eh? We're still going well, Sam's been feeding better today and hopefully will sleep better tonight! He put on 100g on friday (after losing more than 10% of his birth weight) and was the same yesterday so the midwife will come again tomorrow to weigh him. We're meant to feed him no less than 4 hourly which is annoying when he's sleeping so soundly. Jacob's started to love giving him cuddles and 'pisses' but needs a bit of restraint when i'm trying to feed Sam. He's curious about everything we do and helpful as well. Sometimes. More updates to come I'm sure! (and some photos from Dad)

We saw snow!

We are back from Victoria safe and sound, and rather tired! We only got back a couple of hours ago. Quick summary:
*We went to the aquarium
*We had a look around at my childhood places - like where I lived, special spots etc.
*We went to Lake mountain which had snow!!!
*We slipped over alot in the snow
*Rob slipped over and landed a bit hard than he should have on his knee, he now cant walk! What is a holiday without an injury!

I am now off to download more pictures and get some decent sleep! Oh and wash some MORE clothes! 

Shed Update #?

Hi All, not sure what number update we are up to but it's been a while so thought I'd put something up before bed. Things have continued amongst life and it was great that some of you had a look through when you were around.

So what's new, well it's all painted white, I had a go at concreteing and suggested to Jacob that I really needed a 'Dizzy' to help me. Mostly to level the corners and have a more stable floor. Put the underlay down and slapped the carpet on top then decided that the carpet I had overlapped in parts so best to find some more which Ian and I went looking for on Tuesday morning and found a better bit but it didn't quite work out. so on Wed morning. Thanks Ian for helping out though.

So Wednesday I found a better second-hand bit (which by the way was free & a blessing cause they just toss it out) and thankfully I returned the other stuff to the stack. Had a bit of a work place injury though as I stabbed my arm while cutting the new carpet. I applied some first aid and I must say the cut healed well. Sorry Stu I don't think I'll have a scar but I can show you my other ones!

I also moved everything from the built-in robes in Sam's new room (old office) to the shed and moved some of the stuff under the carport into the shed.

Tonight was moving some of the stuff from the back deck (which was in the shed cupboard) into the built-in's in Sam's room.

The biggest problem now is what to do with all those old computer mags, On Being mags and other stuff - I'm sure the recycling bin will be full next week!

So progess is slow but it's happening!

Going well

As some of you have heard things are going well with Sam and Heth. Both are feeding and sleeping well and we pray this continues. Yesterday Sam gave Jacob 'Scrambler' from Bob the Builder which he has enjoyed playing with and it seems like Heth enjoyed a little play herself!

Sam Alan Brocklehurst

Hello World, Sam Alan formally known as 'Pumkin' or 'Pupuk' was born today, 17th July at 10.12am weighing 6 lbs. I'm tired so some more thought's from both Heth and I (Al can't find his password so signed in as Heth) but here are some pictures for you all.

You can also see a short video in Windows Media Format here it's 3.6mb sorry no time to compress it yet and it's small from my old technology digital camera.

18/7: More pics over at http://thebrocklehursts.spaces.msn.com/

Hello out there?

Welcome Sam. It is SOOOOOOOO wonderful to have you in the family. We are sorry that we can not visit you at the moment, but we wouldn't want you to catch what we have! We can't wait to meet you, and see your mummy and daddy and wonderful big brother of course. Mind you, it would be nice Sam if you could ask one of the many grown-ups around you who are no doubt taking lots of beautiful photos of you, to pop one or a few up here so that we can all gaze upon your lovely face.
This truely is a HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY day and we love you guys all HEAPS!!!
Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday beautiful, darling, dear Sam, Happy birthday to you.

Michael went fishing!

In freezing conditions, Michael and Opa (my dad) went fishing this morning down at Largs Bay/Garden Island area. They left here at 6.30am and braved the elements all for the sake of catching seaweed and doing some grandpa/grandson bonding!

Where are the fish you ask? Well they had a good feed of fish and chips for lunch from the local chip shop down there! 

Michael's mid year school report

Sorry Stu, I know the last thing you want to do on your time off is think of reports, but I thought I should post up the comments from Michael's mid year report:

Michael is a very sensitive student who always exhibits a very genuine and caring attitude towards everyone with whom he comes in contact. Although Michael's resilience is slowly growing, he still allows himself to get upset over minor issues which affects his general well being. Academically Michael is progressing well and his reading, writing and spelling skills are good. He needs however to take more care over his letter formation. Michael shows a good understanding of mathematical concepts taught this year.

From his German teacher:

Michael is one of the most receptive, capable German speakers I have - he is doing very well, especially orally

Michael's student reflection:

My successes: To learn alot
My goals: To be resilient
Things I enjoy: Practising lower case letters
My friends: He has listed a heap!!!!

We are very proud that he has come through this term with such a glowing report. As you can tell he has been a bit out of sorts this term emotionally, but I am hopeful that he will get on top of this. He seems to be 'bouncing' (the term the school uses for resilience) more lately, which is a good sign.

Decided to start writing on our own blog again!

Shed Update #...?

It IS still happening even though we haven't updated the blog about it much... and to my untrained eye it looks like it's nearly there! Al's been spending quite a bit of time out there to get it done (isn't he wonderful!) and other people have still been helping out so I really do think we must be closer to the end. There's power out there (handy for when working at night - as he is at the moment), all of the gyprock is on, the internal door's in, the external door has been made a bit more weatherproof, and all the cornice has been put up around the ceiling. A lot of plastering has been done and as far as I know it's really just finishing the plastering and then sanding and painting and carpeting and putting stuff out there! :D Ooh and fixing up the guttering. And the bit around the window. Dave's coming round tomorrow to help, and I think Al's planning on spending pretty much all day friday and saturday working on it so we'll see how much is left to do then! We've talked about not painting it or anything at this stage so we can put things in the shed out of the baby's room so we can put the baby's things in the baby's room but we're both aware that if it doesn't happen now it will never be much of a priority. Still a number of days to go tho!

And of course the cutest 'shed helper' by far was Jacob this afternoon... He had a lovely time helping doing some 'banging' like Daddy and generally taking an interest in it all and exploring. Of course as soon as I made a move to get the camera it all stopped, so you'll have to use your imagination as to how cute they looked!

Thank you!

Thank you for the writing
Love what you wrote
Love
Michael
xxxooo
<:-)

Kindy Girl

Today was Natalie's last day of Kindy for term 2 (her 3rd term - ONLY ONE TO GO!) and so I bought a copy of all the digital photos that the staff have taken this term. Here is just one of the ones of Natalie. I love that modern technology means that I can see what she has been getting up to in the last 10 weeks.

NOT an early birthday present!

At the risk of flooding this blog with pictures of my children, I couldn't resist sharing with you what Natalie was doing today. A lady from church brought around one of the little girls from Sunday School who Natalie plays with, called Paris, and Paris brought her pet with her! I am quite glad that "Muffin" is Paris's pet to look after and NOT my responsibility, but I will conceed that she was very cute and sweet and in Natalie's words "A pony! I am now a princess!"

Brooomm!

Calvin is rarely seen outside without his helmet. Safety first with Calvin. And of course Natalie loves to get her face into every photo.

We made Biscuit

We made some chocolate people biscuits and then we decorated them and then we ATE them. Yum.

Jumping off our biscuits

Michael got a trophy!

Here is Michael at Auskick on Sunday. He has successfully completed another year of Auskick (his second), and added another trophy to his collection (his second!).

He has done very well this year, and has grasped the basics of the game pretty well.

You can also see in this picture that he has his Bulldogs guernsey, which he is very proud of. The Crows fans amongst you will also be happy to note that he likes them 'second'. He won a prize in a raffle also on Sunday and chose a Crows bear Keyring as his prize.

To all of you that have sent him messages over the past couple of days, a big thank you. He has enjoyed getting mail and hearing from everyone - its appreciated! 

Thanks to Nanna

Natalie says,
"Dear Nanna, from Natalie, I want to say next could you come over and visit my house tomorrow and have a big visit? I want to say thankyou for my present. It's very lovely and very cute, and Calvin likes his and he thought it looked like a dinosaur. I want to say next is I like to come over to your house tomorrow. And I was wrting letters to say something to you "From Natalie, for Nanna". Um, I like my zebra and I like to say that I just wanted to tell you was you might like me and my zebra is nice and soft, and I really do like my zebra. I think that is all there is."

Mummy says,
"Thankyou also from me for the lovely bears, the kids seem to really like them."

Calvin says,
"Ta"

life in Loxton

Well it's another Sunday morning, and Dad's gone around to church. As he was leaving I asked did he have breakfast - and he'd forgotten! It HAS been rather a hectic week plus for him! He had funerals Thurs last week, Tuesday adn Friday this week, (all in Renmark!) and a full day meeting in Adelaide on Monday, so we're glad there aren't too many weeks like that! Apparently he's hearing the old chestnut ..... "everyone" says he's "never here"! He hasn't been involved with Emmaus for two years! And his once a month service in Renmark IS only once a month! At last Church Council they apparently handed him a sort of Productivity Report to be completed and returned each month, detailing visits, people contacted about prayer meetings and Bible studies etc etc. Pity about privacy, confidentiality and all that! (and of course I realise he can give them numbers, but what's the point??!) I was interested that there's no column for how long he spends in prayer, or reading, or with his family ............... I'm beginning to wonder if maybe it's time we moved! But that's probably jumping the gun a bit!

This week I've finished the quilt for Pumpkin (if he's a boy .... if she's a girl Heth has other plans!), and I've just this morning finished writing the thank you notes to the folk who sent us cards flowers and so forth when Isabelle died .... another step in my grieving, I guess!
My good friend Kath is in Hospital here with pneumonia, so I've been visiting her a bit, too ... she's doing well now!

I probably better get a move on, or I'll be late!! I enjoy reading all your Blog entries and comments - so figured maybe I should do one too!! Love you all, Mum

It's ridiculous I know...

I keep thinking of all these things I could blog about (such as Jacob and Daddy were playing after dinner, and Daddy lay down on the floor so Jacob brought him a pillow and a quilt so he could go Nigh Night, and was trying to reach the light switch to turn out the light for daddy and gave him lovely kisses and hugs goodnight!) but it just hasn't happened as you can tell... But I have picked up that horrible cold so feel pretty much like crap so have been resting more than much else for the past few days... So of course I go to bed tonight and just can't get to sleep! Thinking about all the things i need to do in the next few weeks and how we'll logistically move things around while the wardrobes are being installed etc. So I got up and chatted to Al then decided to clean the toilet and basin in the bathroom - one more thing to cross off the list!
Crazy I know, but what else do you do at midnight when you're 36 weeks pregnant and have got a cold?