It's Jacob's Birthday!

Today is the day! Jacob was very excited when he saw the pressies next to the bed this morn (although didn't understand that they weren't from Santa!) and had fun opening the parcels that had arrived last week. I think the thing he was most excited about was the 3 lollipops that Aunty Wendy put in with his lovely new red Wiggles top (different to the lovely new red Wiggles top he got from Jo, and the lovely new red Wiggles PJ's he got from NannyB!). I did think that 5 to 7 was a bit early to be eating lollipops even on his birthday, but he will certainly be wanting one as soon as he gets home from Care this arvo. He enjoyed watching the Curious George movie he got from Natalie and Calvin early this morn too, and once he was dressed just wanted to go out and drive his car around the back yard. We took birthday cake to care so they could sing for him again and after we pick him up we'll go to a park with a playground and have some chips for tea, and he can get the rest of his pressie from us! ;)

He certainly seemed to enjoy his birthday party on Saturday arvo. I'd got some big rockers and slides and things from the Toy Library, and Daddy got his big bubble stuff out which was a huge hit! The kids had great fun running around chasing and popping the bubbles. And of course there was Birthday Cake (thanks Nanna) and lots of food! I think Jacob didn't quite eat all of the jelly beans. Was good fun! I have a feeling Jacob will be having a BIG sleep at Care today!

This is being a bit demented and not letting me put photos up at the moment but i'll keep trying. And no doubt I'll have a bit more to update later about the rest of the day!

Riding at the beach.

Twice this weekend we went to the beach to do some bike riding. On Saturday daddy rode his bike to the beach and I took the kids (and their bikes) in the car and we enjoyed and nice picnic tea there. Then Sunday Stuart rode to the beach with Tony and again I took the kids down and we enjoyed milkshakes by the water (completely gorgeous day). Then while the boys rode home the kids discovered the joy of riding very fast down small hill in the park (took some rather funny video). These pictures are from Sunday.

Hope that the rest of you were able to enjoy the lovely weather this weekend.

Debbie.

Bits n Pieces

Just a few things from us...
Jacob's very much looking forward to his birthday and party tomorrow. 'Its my berfday soon, I have free candles' etc etc, very cute. (I probably should do some of the many things I need to do between now and the party but it'll wait I guess.) He's got a bit of a cough at the moment but that doesn't seem to be slowing him down at all, and he is turning into a real chatterbox. He has certainly 'come out of his shell' in recent weeks and luckily for us is quite independent in the mornings when he gets up. He'll be happy to come out and put a video on and eat an apple that we leave out for him (like Father Christmas!) (or anything else he may find - one day it was dry weetbix, another day he'd grabbed the whole chunka loaf of bread and was chomping into it!). We're making the most of not needing to rush in the mornings.
The other night when i was feeding Sam he bit me and drew blood! I was not impressed, and he's done it a few other times since then. Makes feeding incredibly painful and horrible and I really hope he stops doing it! His teeth are very sharp. He's also not slowed down by much anymore as he's officially crawling! We're not quite sure exactly what we're in for now... Good fun I guess and he's generally happy to entertain himself with the toys in the corner, and now if Jacob takes toys away from him he can just go and find some more! Gonna be interesting I think...
Al's busy with an assignment at the moment, and I'm just busy with these 2 mobile boys. I think I should give up trying to achieve anything in the day!
Anyway just thought we'd say hello. Shall blog more after the party and the birthday I imagine. And now I REAlly need to go and do those things!
Much Love,
Heth :)

How Fair is Fair Trade?

I thought it was time for a new post, so I thought I'd share something I came across this morning in the New Scientist newsletter. They have a journalist exploring his global footprint, and this weeks article is focussed on the fairness of fair trade coffee. I figured we need some more action on this blog, so I've put it up. Any thoughts?

Planning for an anniversary that should be a bithday party.

Eleven months have passed since we had to say goodbye to our darling daughter and that has put us in mind of what we would like to do one month from now. Obviously we are not going to let this day pass without suitable recognition, and although our thoughts might change, we have come up with a few things we would like to happen. On Friday the 20th of April Stuart and I would like to be able to leave the kids somewhere and have the evening to go into the city alone. Then on Saturday the 21st we will take the kids (and whoever else would like to join us) to Isabelle's garden so that the kids can give the sight some birthday decoration (flowers, balloons, pinwheels etc). Stuart and I will also be buying a gift from the world's most useful catalogue (or whatever it is called) and we would like to encourage others who would like to mark the occasion to do similar. Any cards etc Stuart would like to collect and keep in Isabelle's treasure box.
After we have been to Isabelle's garden we are planning to take our kids to the zoo and invite anyone who is keen to join with us (this may be for a picnic lunch or it may be after depending on what is happening in the morning).
Debbie.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

Michael was certainly captivated ....

Worth a thousand words

I've just read Stuart's blog entry and it put me in mind of this fantastic photo I came across yesterday. Just thought I'd share.
Debbie.

Grandpa

I know that I have inherited a lot from my Grandpa. I know that a great deal of who I am has come from him.

I know that he has bequeathed me his passion. I know that the joy I find in argument comes directly from this man who gave me his name. There is no better way of working out what we think than sharpening ourselves upon each other, and Grandpa has helped to make me sharp.

At his feet I lay the blame for my stubbornness and baldness, and give him his dues for my broad grin.

All those years that I spent growing up, knowing that knowing stuff was important, and I never even realised that some people didn't care about ideas or education, until I started trying to teach other people's grandchildren.

I am most thankful for the legacy of faith that runs through his children, and down into my family, because through this legacy I know that we will meet again. I know that when we meet again he will be able to hear what I say. I know that when we meet again his skin will not be torn, his lungs will not be shallow, and that he won't be sore, or tired or frustrated. I know that we will meet again, and I know this because of the faith that he passed on to his children, which they passed on to me. For all this, I am very thankful.

I hope that I can leave an inheritance like this for my grandchildren.

I hope that I can encourage other people like Grandpa has encouraged me. I hope that when my Grandchildren organise an Eastercamp and want to use up all of the church's electricity I will remind those old biddys who complain that some things are important and some things aren't. I hope that I will still be interested in weird foreign newspapers when I am past 90. I hope that I will leave a legacy like he has left.

I hope I don't fall off of the church roof when I'm 80, though. I think that might hurt.

Haircut

We took Jacob down to Marion this arvo for coffee and cake oh hangon we had the coffee, Jacob had some cake (and a few sits in Thomas the Tank Engine) and a much needed haircut. He was quite happy to go to the 'special new shop' for a haircut. He was really tired (almost feel asleep driving there) and I think as a result he did extremely well at sitting still and tilting his head when asked.

He proudly showed everybody at church tonight and you can guess the comments that were made (mostly by the girls!). When he started to help packup he was handed a mic and then walked to the front of the stage and said 'new hair cut'...the mic wasn't plugged in though doh!! cute as :-)

Hope all is well.

Finally got some pics off the camera!

I know it's been a while and we've been slack but here we are now! Of course as I'm doing this I realise that we haven't got photos of the really important things... like our new car! (Had it for a month or so now so it's not really that new... but Jacob still calls it our 'special new car' - and everything else is special and new too like special new shop and special new nanna) And our new fence! (which went up yesterday and it's so nice to have some privacy in our back yard again! And it's a bit higher than the old one so that will take some getting used to... but it sure won't fall down!). One day we'll take some pics of those things and put here... maybe...

But anyway we're here now. Very pleased to report that Jacob's bedtime is sooooo much better than it used to be! It's been nearly 2 weeks now and he hardly makes a noise (apart from the night after mum commented how well the boys go to bed, and since then Sam's been upset and unsettled too!). He doesn't wake up during the night now either which is fantastic, and in the mornings he's generally happy to put his own dvds on and play in the lounge, and lately gets the breakfast cereal out and starts eating that (thankfully he can't open the fridge!). Can't believe it's only a month until he turns 3!

Sam's been pretty good too. He seems to be so close to crawling (which we are so not ready for!) and certainly moves round enough. The last few days he's decided 6:30 is a good time to wake up and start the day (we also aren't ready for!) but thankfully the day I was quite crook with tonsilitis he slept for over 2 1/2 hours in the morning and again in the afternoon so I could rest up too.

Al's back at Uni this week so we're getting used to another new routine. We're pretty stoked cos he got a High Distinction for the subject he did as an intensive! It was very basic computer stuff which he has trained people in himself so he'd wanna do well, but he didn't put much effort into any of it so was still pleasantly surprised. He's still busy with church stuff and video editing and other bits n pieces and life in general!

And me? I'm feeling much better than i was earlier this week - the antibiotics seem to be doing what they should and my tonsils aren't looking as horrid as they did. Jo & Luci & I have a regular once a month coffee date which is great! We went to Starbucks at the bay this week and I tried Luci's Chai Latte and I can see myself getting hooked. Yum. It's been a busy few weeks but things are settling down a bit now (I hope!).

Anyway... Think it's bedtime! MUCH love to you all and look forward to seeing you over the next few weeks!
xox

Things are happening!

Hi Honeys! Wonder how you're enjoying Clipsal, Rob Cherie and Michael?? And I hope you're feeling MUCH better Debbie and that you're all keeping away from hospitals this week! And I hope your tonsillitis is all gone now Heth, and that the rest of you are well!
We're well, and busy as usual .... off to lunch today "Let's do Lunch", Chew Chin Chow tomorrow night and lunch at church Sunday, as Pinnaroo folk are visiting for the weekend!
Several folk had expressed an interest in getting together for some stitching and fellowship, so yesterday I invited people to come, between about 10-4, and I was amazed and delighted .... 12 ladies came! They all seemed to enjoy it, and I certainly did too! We've decided to call ourselves "Sit and Stitch", and meet here 2nd and 4th Tuesdays! Most of the girls had projects on the go, that they just needed a bit of a prod to get on with, so it was a good day! A few needed some particular help to get started, and that was fine too! So I'm sure you'll all chuckle, that I've gone and done it again!!
Last Sat Bob and Ken came and helped Dad make up the 3 sets of lovely Ikea bookshelves the Parish has bought for the study, and Dad spent Wed moving things around! We eventually got the shelves into the study, and now there are less boxes in there .... but still some! And the shelves are full, of course! But it looks better than it did!
Look after yourselves, all of you! Love you all! Mum

News from Whyalla

First things. The kids have recovered from their injuries (picture of Natalie included). Natalie said this morning that it was like there was no sore there at all any more, so that's good (Natalie fell over at school and decided to stop her fall with her face rather than her hands! And Calvin had the door shut on his foot and slice open the back of his heel - LOTS of blood).

Last Tuesday we had playgroup at the beach where the kids enjoyed the animals and the ducks had to fight Calvin for the bread!

Okay, and on to my news. Because it had been a whole month I thought that I should go back and check that the hospital was still there. Yesterday morning (while thinking of all the jobs that I had to do to get ready for mum and dad's visit over to see Tony) Calvin was playing in bed and squished my tummy in such a way that I thought "mmm, that doesn't feel right, ohh I need to go to the loo". But then I proceeded to feel like I REALLY needed to go even though my bladder was empty. This was disturbingly uncomfortable enough for Stuart to start ringing around to find a Saturday Dr but then when I started weeing blood we decided to go straight up to the hospital. Stuart and the kids just dropped me off to go home and await mum and dad and I was examined and sent up to the High Dependency Unit because it was the only place in the hospital with a free bed. I was then put on a drip to 'flush' out my system, the thought being that the blood may be from an old infection/wound. This seemed to work and after spending from 10:30am until 5:30pmish hooked up to a drip I convinced the staff to let me go home (I was supposed to stay on the drip until 10:30pm and stay in over night but the thought of that was too much for me). So the drip worked and I'm still alive, so I guess that means that it was something simple. Feel a bit 'blaa' this morning and I have had to step down from playing guitar in church this morning, but I feel ok enough to try and make it to church with the family.

Wow, this worked - I'm so happy! (though I did have to steal Stuart log on to try and make it work)

Love and hugs, Debbie.

Morning all!

Blog's been a bit quiet for a while .... guess everyone's busy! Our diaries are getting full, as folk try to get to know us, and we try and go to a lot of the things on around t church here .... there are sure plenty! Saturday night we played mini-golf with 54 others, and that was beaut fun! We really enjoyed it, but it aggravated the cold that Dad kindly shared with me earlier that day! I'm pretty thick-headed now .... no comments needed thanks! I've been getting some sewing done, and enjoying it! On Friday I'll finally get to go to a quilting group here ... will be interesting ... is only a 2 hour "show" so I'm not sure just what we'll do! Guess I'll find out! Hope you're all doing OK!

Just call me Assistant Principal Kitto

(During Term 4, anyway)

Moving back home

Hey there,

Just a heads up that I will be resuming using my msn spaces account for my blogging from now on. I will also post updates that have been happening around our world. Rob and Michael will no doubt still use this blog.

Here is a link for you (especially you Mum, make sure dad puts a link on your desktop so that you can view it easily, if not I will set one up when I come over next, or add it to your favourites - oh thats for my Mum by the way!)

http://noiseworker.spaces.live.com/

Guitar!

As you all know Jacob got a red guitar (like Murray) for Christmas and he loves playing it. He sings lots of songs for us about many different things (I'll leave that for your imagination).

It's great to see him learning heaps of musical instruments and enjoying singing.

Apricots

We had small apricots on the tree but a bumper crop considering I cut half the tree down. Our biggest 'stew' night was a 2 hour session. We now get to enjoy the 'fruits' of our labour for the rest of the year!

How was your bag full Stu - did you remember them in the car???

The List

Well over the summer Uni break (which I have one week left cause I'm starting early) I had a long list of jobs to do. Two major ones was to move the garden shed which also involved laying a slab of concrete (thought that would be a good idea but...) and with the shed moved cut and stack the pile of wood.

Shed: sweat easily and it was As you may have noticed on Christmas day, for those who were here - it was moved! Although a tip for people laying concrete on a hot day is to read the instructions first. As I tent to degrees when I was flatening it, I didn't do the greatest of jobs, so the slab isn't quite level and has some air bubbles/gaps within the slab. Also as we went away soon after I didn't cure it properly so the water dried out thus leaving those bubbles etc. Oh well things about 28your learn! Lucky it's just the garden shed and not the granny flat (opps sorry Nanna's!).








Wood: Yep so now there is er was a space were the shed was and now....after some early cool mornings, help from Jacob and some daylight savings we have a nice lot of stacked wood.

Re-training

After speaking to some people at church yesterday who had some issues with their child and going to sleep, we thought we'd give it ago - that is to re-train Jacob. As most of you know we have been sitting in with Jacob when we first put him to bed until he is asleep and we can 'escape' and when we wakes at night.

Last night after sitting with him for a while I explained that he was a big boy now and didn't need mum or dad to stay with him until he went to sleep (i.e. sit on couch). I suggested that I put on the radio and he listen to that. He agreed so on went the radio and out of the room I went....Jacob fell asleep.

He woke once during the night so I did the same thing - told him he was a big boy put on the radio gave him a kiss and a goodnight. All was well and he slept until 8am Yeh!!!

TONIGHT: Well once yoiu change a habit (if it's a good one) then stick with it. So we did the same thing we had to close the door twice and we had tears but he got the message and the door stayed open, radio on, Jacob went to sleep without Dad.

The down side was that with Jacob's tears and screams poor same couldn't get to sleep so he was very confused but as it didn't last long (20-30 min), Sam soon went to sleep also. Short pain for long term gain - we hope

Hopefully tonight will be a good night.

UPDATE" Yep it was, Jacob slept right through until 6.30am! Yeh but I didn't slep that well.

Bother (bloggin)

Well most others blog more than I do but are people still using their old blogger accounts when commenting or adding new posts. If so try logging in with your Google account. I know it say's you can do both but maybe Google logins are working better with the new blogger.

Although it is a computer application :-)

Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day everyone (or invasion day, however you see it)! We celebrated the day doing what we thought would be a good thing, seeing this great country of ours. At first we were going to go away for the weekend, but we couldnt decide where. Mount Gambier was an option, so was Horsham, Port Augusta, Wilpena Pound, Cape Jervis, Coonawarra, and then it was 11.30am and we figured eh bugger it lets just go for a drive! And drive we did! 300kms in a big circle! We headed off to Clarendon for lunch and had lunch from the bakery there (if you are ever there go to the one on the main road, we have been going for years and its superb). We then trekked off to Kangarilla, Meadows, Euchunga, Hahndorf (didnt realise how close it was the back way!), Woodside, Birdwood, then Mannum. We stopped at Mannum and had a walk along the river, and Michael played on the playground there (this picture is of the boys at Mannum). The Murray Princess was also moored so we had a look at that. We then went to Murray Bridge, where Rob wanted to show Michael the Bunyip. He went to the information bay and located it, drove in the direction of it, noted the large presence of the 'boys in blue', and muscle cars, and thought what is going on?? Some muscle car competition was being run (gee how convenient Rob??!!), and it was right where the Bunyip was. Could have entered our car, and probably would have won, but ended up going back to the freeway instead. We then went home via Mount Barker, Hahndorf, Euchunga, Kangarilla, McLaren Vale, and then deviated to Seaford where Rob's boss owns a car wash, and got a nice bath for Grunt. We then drove along the seafront home, and had a great BBQ for dinner with my parents - including damper buns (most yummy).
Rob and Michael are now at Murray Bridge again as the Speedway is on there tonight. They have gone with Aidian (Michael's best friend), and his dad Rob. I am enjoying some nice peace and quiet after scrubbing my house all day long :)
Have a great evening everyone, and hope you are doing ok Deb.

A good night's Sleep

Well before we start another night, just a quite blog to say Jacob slept right through they night last night. This is the first time since before Christmas. I was very happy cause it meant I also slept all night :-)

Unfortunately for Heth, Sam woke around 4am :-(

Challenge taken - by Rob!

Hey there,
Well here is Rob's attempt at taking photos of the comet, and I think considering he used my cheapie camera, that it turned out pretty good :)
We didnt actually know that there was the comet viewing last night, I happened to look outside to check that the house that was on fire a few streets down was extinguished, I then saw the comet, and we ran outside to have a look.
The photos were taken using the night mode on the camera, and Rob did use a tripod for balance. He also got some very cool shots of the moon and stars also :)
We tried to wake up Michael so that he could see it also (was around 9.30pm), but he was very out of it.

What a lovely little man...

Tuesday night after tea Jacob spent quite a while putting things from the shelf in the dining room into the bag to take to NannaPapa's house... I'm talking everything from the 4 shelves he can reach (all the candles and wooden things and footballs and other bits n pieces). I explained that we weren't going there for a while but he had to do it now and was having such a lovely time. He then got the coloured fabric out of a plastic bag and was trying to wrap it around himself - 'dress up like Natalie'. Very cute!
Last night he even went to sleep without one of us sitting on the couch! He was very tired, and we weren't quite so successful tonight (a bit unfortunate, cos he screamed the house down and very much disturbed his very tired little brother who wanted to sleep!) but we got there in the end. Hooray!

PS - Debbie we miss you! Hope blogger can sort itself out so you can blog here again :)

The Comet

Well, it was an interesting thing to try and capture the comet in a small time frame, and find out how to set the camera up, given that there was a fair bit of ambient light from the town. But here is the best I got.

Morning All!

Thought I should just report in, on yesterday .... what a HUGE day! Dad was a tad anxious, but didn't need to be ... his old teacher Pip (now Cong Sec) gave him a 12 out of 10 for the First Sermon - which of course now puts the pressure on to keep that high standard! But it WAS a good service, and good chats afterwards! Then we went to lunch again, this time with about 20, including 5 Ministers ... 4 retired, some visiting! Back to church for a 50th wedding anniversary "open house" for Alan and Margie, and that was just lovely! Margie is Pip's sister, so he was MC, and there were some funny reminiscences, then Alan and Margie sang a song ... they've both been involved in Choral society things for years, and Alan has an excellent voice! It was a good way for us to get to know a bit more about them! We came home for about half an hour then went to a Church Together celebration in the big marquee. We were both stunned to be greeted warmly (very warmly - hugs n all!) by Rob and Maureen ... caught us a bit off guard! The service was very lively, energetic and pente, and afterwards there was just about a queue of people wanting to talk to us ... Rob Wyatt who knew me years ago and whose daughter is an old friend; a dear old lady who asked were we at Pt B, did Dad used to have hair, and did he remember marrying her and Ernest ... and we did! And she was quite overcome to meet us again, very chatty and really needed a cup of tea!! (Ernest died 5 years ago) ... and then there was Yvonne, who used to own an excellent quilt shop out at Highbury, moved here 6 months ago, and remembered us .... wow! We came home about 9, quite stunned ... and exhausted!
I'm anticipating all Sundays won't be quite like that! We're starting to get dates in the diaries ... so we really know we're here, and this is where we belong ... and it's good!
We're going to see Aunty Gwen this morning - and get BBQ cover, and sand! Love Mum
PS Hope things looking up for all of you .... especially Debbie and Sam!

Poor Sam...

Sam's a bit crook! He's only really kept about 2 feeds down since 6:30 yesterday morning and has been doing ENORMOUS spews! Not quite so bad today (but he did sleep for 4 1/2 hours this arvo!) but yesterday we went through so many clothes... and you know how good this weather is for getting things dry...
So last night after not keeping anything down and not enough wet nappies, I thought I'd better get him checked out. He was still bright and chirpy and didn't appear to be miserable or too flat or anything, but I didn't want him to get dehydrated. I took him to Flinders and we didn't really have to wait too long, we were only there from 9 - 12 (and of course he was awake the whole time). He's ok and there wasn't really much they could tell me! Just one of those things, could be a virus or his teeth (make that tooth cos there's only 1), and keep an eye on him and get him checked out again if it goes on too long. Fun.
I'm very glad he's not been too upset with it. Today I was beyond exhausted and not functioning very well so I had lovely sleep this afternoon as well - still trying to catch up from our short nights away. Al & Jacob are ok (just tired too) and we all hope we all sleep a lot better tonight!

In other news, the dust bowl next door has turned into a mud bowl! Would be so much fun to go play in it :P They're working on the retaining wall and new fence (among other things) which is a very good thing... Al went out tonight to make sure what's left of our fence is still standing, and some of the concrete in the carport is collapsing! The water's eroded the dirt away so there's nothing to support it. He took some photos but I'm too tired to look at them now. Shall keep you informed!

*yawn*

How's things??

Hi Honeys all! I wonder how you're all doing?? ... I hope you're not flooded out, nor had any damage, Debbie n Stu, in the floods there! And I hope Sam is better today, Heth n Al .... I understand you getting him checked out, and I hope you've had a reasonable night after that!
And I hope you're all well n able to enjoy a good weekend, Cherie n Rob!!
Marg H visited yesterday, and hasn't changed .... she mentioned the swatting flies comment and we laughed .... but she doesn't seem to have learned much from it .... 16 years ago now I think! She took me to Ad for my Board meeting last night, and it rained VERY heavily on the way, and there was SO much traffic - lots with bikes on the back! Jill and John gave me a ride home, and it was very strange to drive into the town, with no street lights! Power went off just as Poirot was about to reveal whodunit, so Dad was a bit frustrated! Came back on about 10 past 12, just after I got home, but then off again 5 minutes later, until about 6am .... I'm glad it came back on, as we have no hot water/showers/shutters/garage door, with no power! Actually that's not quite true ... there is a manual over-ride on the garage door! Dad's gone to music practice at church this morning .... 9am Saturday is a bit different!
Hope you're all good, not mouldy, and all have a pleasant weekend! Love Mum

Hope it all went well!

Hey there,

Just wanted to drop a line and wish you guys all the best for the church service this evening. Sorry I didnt get on here earlier to wish you all the best, but I have some gastro bug, and came home early from work today ill :( Thankfully Dad was in the area, and had decided to finish working on site a little early so I got a ride home :)

Hope you all had fun together, and sorry we couldnt make it.

Happy Birthday Calvin!!!

It's our turn to send Calvin BIG birthday greetings... Jacob enjoyed drawing you a picture the other day but this morning Sam just wanted to eat it so this was the best pic we could get! Anyway we are thinking of you lots today and are glad you are doing fun things. A pirate party sounds great! We can't wait to see you this week & we'll give you your pressie then. We love you lots! Love Jacob, Sam, Uncle Al & Aunty Heth

Yippeee!!! Calvin is 'Free!

Happy birthday me hearties!
Happy birthday me hearties!
May you have a wicked party!
Happy birthday me hearties!

Anyway!..

Hope you have a fantastic day Calvin, wow you are certainly growing up! We have left your presents at Grandmas for you, as I dont think we will be lucky enough to see you and Mummy and Daddy and Natalie when you are down this week. But no matter you have a great time, and I will get Michael to post on here a little later on. He is about to go to a birthday party for his friend Bianca!
Love
Aunty Cherie, Uncle Rob and Michael
xxxx

Calvin's birthday

Cos Debbie is doing the updates, they are going to appear on the Cozens blog. (I think Blogger's transition from old to new isn't quite going as smooth as they would have hoped.)

Calvin said: Thanks for remembering my birthday, Nanna, Byee .

Happy "Free" birthday Calvin!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday deeear Calvin, happy birthday to you! Hi Honey! We're thinking of you lots today and hope you have just the best super-fantastic day with lots of lovely celebrations and yummy food! .... and balloons of course! We hope you don't mind waiting until you come and see us, to get your presents ... I didn't get my act together quite enough to post them! It will be SO lovely to see you all in a few days time! Grampa adn I are going to church at Adare this morning, and we'll be able to sit together .... maybe the once and only time!! Have a luvverly day and travel safe and we'll see you soon! Love Nanna n Grampa XXXXXX

Hello Grunt (and everyone else) (from Debbie)

(This is Debbie's post, by the way. Blogger is being stupid.) Hi everyone. Marbrook Rob and Cherie ('Congratulations in Lebanese). The car looks great. Really love the logo photo!
Just thought I'd better write here and let you know that I am reading and looking at the blogs, but for some reason it will not let me leave comments. Annoying!

Calvin and I did make it safely back yesterday, but I'm quite happy to not have to get in the car for a couple of days. Glad we went down. I think it was nice for Daniel to have something a bit different happen for his birthday. It has certainly made me very excited about Calvin's birthday (though we are still working out what we will do). I asked Calvin yesterday who he would like to celebrate his birthday with and (after I explained that it couldn't be Daniel) he told me very definitely that he wanted Tony, dressed as a pirate! Haven't broken the news to Tony yet, but we'll see what we can work out ;)

Meet Grunt!

Rob would have posted this, but he is still out drooling over his new acquistion! I am sure he will keep you up to date of its first milestones, but I will start off by saying that we its now clocked over 100kms today! We took it for a little drive the length of the Expressway and then to Glenelg. Its now safely tucked up in bed (aka garage), and Rob is doing the kitchen, although I swear I hear the kitchen to garage door open and close every now and again ;)

Another hot day, another bushfire...

Hey there,
As I am sure you have heard by now, there is a pretty sizeable bushfire buring in the Mt Bold/Kangarilla district. It started at around 6.30pm this evening, and this is how it looked from our house at around 7ish.
We have had a lot of fire trucks rushing past on Chandlers Hill Road this evening. Here is hoping it is under control soon.
I had a look at the CFS website, and it has burnt 1600 hectares since being reported at 6.30 this evening, guess those strong wings are not helping. There was another fire ignited at Prospect Hill (further south), so it doesnt look all that hopeful that it was 'accidental'.

What we've been doing while Mummy is away

Natalie: Hayden came over to visit me. We played princesses and doctors and kings. We had fun with the doctors toys. Then we did Mr Potato Head. That's all there is. Bye.
Stuart: Debbie left just after 7am this morning to go down to Adelaide to stay with a friend. (The friend moved down just before Christmas, and her husband has just gone on a mission trip to the Philippines, and after being broken into on the weekend, she isn't coping too well.) Debbie took Calvin, to help celebrate Bradley's birthday. The plan is that she will stay overnight and return by lunchtime tomorrow.

Good morning from sunny Victor Harbor!

There's a lot I could tell you but dare say it may be a bit boring so I'll try to cut to the chase, so to speak! I appreciated your comment Rob that we may have heard enough about BOXing .... not wrong! We've made incredible progress tho, I reckon, with all boxes unpacked apart from in the study and sewing room and the pot plants .... but those plant ones will need to be done this morning to make room for our new stuff to be delivered .... we went to Mitre 10 yesterday, to buy a reject door for Dad to use for a desk (on 2 2 drawer filing cabinets, like in Loxton) and got just a little carried away! Today they will deliver our new BBQ, and our new patio heater, and our new outdoor setting of table and 6 chairs .... well I SAID we got carried away!! Oh and they'll bring the door, too! It was kinda fun! Before we went there I also bought a new very nice office chair to replace that dreadful old ripped red vinyl one, and I'm finding it very comfortable here at my computer! Dad decided to leave my old monitor in Ltn for the dump, and my new larger one is so much clearer .... I like it!!

Our new home here is lovely and we'll be very comfortable, once we get some more cupboards! There are lots of lovely bookshelves in the family room, and there are built ins wardrobes in spare rooms, and broom cupboard and linen press, but all only half the size of the ones we had!! And one of the glitches in our moving was that the wardrobe Dad wanted in his study for storing stuff wouldn't fit around the corner into the room! So he's now got the linen press that was my fabric cupbd and the bookshelf that was in the spare room! So I'm hoping we can go this morning and buy the linen press and bookshelf we saw in Victor Furniture yesterday, for my sewing room!

Anyway, that's enough for now! I'm anticipating that we'll have a barbie for tea next Wed, before the Induction Service ..... but dare say you'll hear more before then! It will be good to see you all down here soon!! By the way ..... it's occurred to me that Dad will be starting work Thursday, after the service Wed night, so if those of you who'll be staying wanted to come earlier rather than just Wed, that would be good!! Love you all! Mum

Rising up . . .

Anyone else want a shot at the title? Dave came over last night, and we had some fun throwing punches. I've almost got a black eye, but it just looks like a5mm of black eyeliner at the corner of my eye, so that is pretty disappointing. I'll have to try again later in the week.

I got a few good punches in, but Dave clobbered my more than I clobbered him. I blame my parents - after all, they're responsible for my short stubby arms, aren't they?

Goodbye from Loxton!

Hi All! Stu, if your ears have been burning, I make no apology - Dad 's just spent nearly an hour trying to sort out his new Blogger thingy and I've done a bit of muttering about folk who need to CHANGE things THIS WEEK! However, it seems to be actually allowing me in, and letting me type, so I might calm down in a while!

The computer's being packed up soon, so this is the last entry from here! We can see that we WILL be ready when the truck comes 7.30 tomorrow morning, and part of me can't wait to get going! I enjoyed my last walk here, this morning, and saw Mr Kangaroo at the Village, as well as something I've NEVER seen before ..... there were 6 kangaroos grazing across the river, and I stopped and watched them for quite a while .... it was about 20 to 7, beginning to warm up, and just beautiful and peaceful .... a very special memory for me!

This week I feel a bit as if I've been just sort of pottering .... picking up something and taking it somewhere else ... and putting things in boxes, surprise surprise! I was a bit startled that my pedometer told me I've done over 40,000 steps each of the last two days .... no wonder I'm grumpy, eh?! ... not sleeping much hasn't helped, either!

Anyway, i think Dad's nearly ready to pack this up, so I'll go! Hope you're all well and cool, and not too busy, and very forgiving, and we'll see you all soon - in another place!! Love Mum
PS ... we're gonna be without Broadband for a while as we should have given 7-10 days notice, instead of 3 ... dare say there'll be other things for us to do, and there's always Dial-up if we're desperate for a "fix"!!

Now Cooler than ever!

We already knew that we were cool, but now we are even cooler with a working Air conditioner again. The guys just came and fixed it and just in time for the stinky hot weather on Thursday. Just thought we'd share that because we are VERY happy about it.

Hope that you are all keeping cool too.

Happy New year!

Here is a picture of Michael and his prized glow accessories!
We just had a nice quiet night at home with my parents, and enjoyed watching the fireworks at midnight.

We actually had an extra special treat, as just after midnight whilst all of the fireworks were in full swing, a falling star went right over us, and yes it definately was one, and not a stray firework.

Sometimes the driveway makes it all worthwhile! ;)

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year :) 

Migrating to New Blogger

You will have noticed (when you log in) that you sometimes have the option of upgrading to New Blogger. (It doesn't appear everytime, because Blogger is staggering the migration.) It would be good if everyone can do this when they get a chance, because if I move the Blog over before people upgrade, then they won't be able to access the blog. I'd like to make this upgrade later in the week, so if you see the option to Switch - please take it up. Happy New Year, btw.

Happy New Year 2007

Happy new year to you all. Last night we got together with some friends to bring in the new year by making a silly movie. We had fun running around all over town filming fight scenes and investigations, and parties and pretty much anything we could string together to make a plot.
Here is a picture of Jo, Naomi, Nadine and Leonie celebrating the new year in style.

It has been lovely that the kids have been able to holiday in Orroroo with Grandma and Grandpa. Stuart and I haven't had quite the amount of rest and sleep that we may have hoped for, but we have been able to do lots of socialising which has been very lovely.
Hope that you were all able to bring in the new year with style and fun. And hope that you are not feeling to stress mum K and that you are feeling better dad K. Stuart has been checking the weather for Loxton vs Victor everyday and has concluded that Thurday will be a very good day to move south!

Love to you all and blessing for the year ahead of us.

Happy New Year!

Hi All! Hope you all enjoyed your NY Eve celebrations, and that you all have a healthy 2007, with wisdom to meet each new challenge!
Dad's packing the study, and keeps coming out with all sorts of "treasures" .... latest was the Waikerie "petition" from '98 .... my goodness! He's shredded lots of stuff! I've washed most of the kitchen cupboards, except for the two shelves that have the things we're still using, and I washed our woollen underlay this morning - and then it rained for the next 3 hours! But it's hanging out now, and the sun's out so it won't take long to dry! We chuckle at the weather forecast - Thurs is sposed to be 40* and thundery here, and 28* in Victor! Kinda funny really!
I have a feeling I shouldn't be sitting here .... there are probably lots of things I should be doing to make sure we really ARE ready when the truck comes early Thursday morning! By the way ....
Dad is fine! He went for his usual 10k run this morning! The little gash on his head is healing nicely, and the patches on his chest (that were shaved for the ECG monitors) are itching!! But he's OK! ..... which is kinda good! Love you all! Mum