What a surprise!

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

Dispersed backup procedures

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

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

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

Bother. Bother. Bother.

... very strange!

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

Well we had a good time last night ;)

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

My poem to everyone

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

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

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

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

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

I have another joke,

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

Is that a good joke?

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

Love Michael
xxx
()()()

The Beach!

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

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

Trucks!

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

my medalion

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

Darn!!

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

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

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

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

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

Update from Mum re: Michael's carols night

Hey there,

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

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

one of my carols songs

one of my carols songs

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

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

One that makes me upset is

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

Thats all I remember about that part.

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

My carols night is December 7th at 7pm

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

well, it seemed like a good idea at the time

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

my week so far

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

Some old Christmas artwork...

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

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

Jacob the Rock Star

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

what we did

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

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

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

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

Guess where WE went today...?

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

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

You'll never believe it, but...

Debbie went back to hospital today!

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

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

Cruising for a bruising

These bruises just keep getting better.

Awesome, hey?