Recovery Days

Friday

Mahalia was wanting to get up early for a feed of decent sold food.
She hadn’t eaten much yesterday and was hungry.
She was as perky as she could be after a good sleep.

Tim cooked up some porridge but she couldn’t wait that long so I cooked her some toast.
She figured out how to eat it herself.

Azzan has been a loving bro and feeds Mahalia her meals.
I sent her outside into the sun for a while to get her much needed dose of Vit D.

Shanni & Azzan tidied up and Azzan helped Mahalia put away her clothes.
Nice that she can get some pay back now
They were all so tired I let them crash out and watch a movie.

Tim & Gavin went out to do mussel work – it was such a calm and lovely morning.
Great day to be on the sea.

Nathan cleaned out the Terrano, got meat organised for dinner and chilled out with his book.
I enjoyed the sunny morning and rehung the washing Tim hung out yesterday and then added another load to it.
It was lovely to be out in the sun for a while.

I have been keeping in touch with Grace today.
Aimee survived the night on life support and the doctors are waiting for all the family to arrive so they can say goodbye to her.
They will make the decision as to when to turn off the machines soon.

Saturday

The troops were up at 5am today as they were heading out mustering early and then tailing lambs.
I was woken by Azzan at 5:45am.
He had decided he wanted to go out to but couldn’t find his jacket.
I found it and sent them all on their way and went back to bed.
I woke up at 7:30 to the sounds of the piano.
This is who I found out there tinkling away on the keys.


She was hungry so I made her some porridge and set it up for her on pillows so she could feed herself.
She is trying to do as much as she can for herself – certainly a very easy patient.




After I had a soak in the spa I spent the morning cooking.
Made a large pot of tomato & vege soup and got a fish dish started for dinner.
Azzan walked down from the tailing yards at the top of the hill and so I made sandwiches for us all.
He and Hali played on the computer while they ate their lunch.
I crashed out and watched a dvd.
I was rather amused to see where Tinga had gotten to when Mahalia ‘lost ‘ him!


Poor Mahalia was getting rather bored.
She watched a movie in the morning and then another one with Azzan later on.
She wants to read but finds turning the pages a bit frustrating so has given up on that for now.
The guys all arrived back mid afternoon.
They had a break and then headed back up the hill to kill a couple of sheep.
Hali was keen to get some fresh air and a change of scenery but couldn’t face being away for the time they were going for.
Her arms were getting very sore so I tucked her up into bed for a rest.
She slept for several hours.

I got word from Grace around midday to say that Aimee’s life support was about to be turned off.
So it is all rather final now.
I have been feeling rather blue today.
Tonight I heard that after his battle with the brain tumour, our dear friend Craig died late last night.

Everyone is tired tonight.
Physically and emotionally.
It has been a tough few days


 

A very sad & traumatic day

I woke about 3am.
It was cold and I couldn’t get back to sleep.
Hopped into a hot shower to warm up at 4:40am.
We left home around 6am.

When we got to town there was snow down on the hills behind Richmond which probably explained why it was so cold over night.
I dropped Nathan in town and he walked to The Wood.
I had a list to work through before music.
I drove out to Richmond to get Tim’s stuff from CRT and then on the way back into town I rearranged the kids piano timetables which allowed Mahalia some time to go play with Sophie.
She was rapt to be able to as she has really been missing her girl friends.
I buzzed around and got through my list then took Shanni & Azzan to the library.
We then juggled appointments and lessons and finally all ended up at gymnastics at 2:15pm.

I was chatting to the other mothers when I all of a sudden realised Mahalia was on the ground and Steph the coach was yelling to Sharon the head coach to get an ice pack and ring the ambulance.
I tore across to her and found she had fallen off the P bars.
She was walking along them, about 1.5m off the ground when she lost her footing, fell landing on both her wrists.
It was pretty darned obvious to us that both wrists were broken from the shape of them and from the pain.
She was in shock and hyperventilating.
I had to think fast as it was only 5mins before the session was finishing and the other 3 kids needed to be organised.
Victoria dropped Azzan & Shanni off at ballet then Sasha picked them up and took them to the Winnington’s at 5:30pm when they had gotten back from taking Emma to the airport.
I am so very thankful for friends
Nathan took the Terrano and went to the library and then to his 4:30pm appointment.

The ambulance guys arrived.
They were great.
They assessed her, then put splints on her arms.
It was all a bit tricky cuz both arms were broken.
They put her straight on to laughing gas and then managed to transfer her on a mobile chair, out of the gym and down the steps into the ambulance.
They got us settled and then we were off to the hospital.
Not too far thankfully.
I must admit I was thinking back a few years when Nathan broke his wrist here at home and he had to travel 3 hours to hospital on a bumpy windy road with hardly any pain killer med – no fun

Once we got to hospital we were transferred over to the Emergency Department staff.
They were fantastic.
They spent ages getting her pain under control using various forms of morphine and gas as she needed it.
They had to put an access tube into her ankle as they couldn’t access her arms – too painful to move or straighten them at that point.
Once they got her pain sorted we were then taken to x-ray.
Her nurse Lesley was fantastic.
Chatty, friendly and very caring and interested in her patient.
She and the radiologist were so lovely.
Each time they had to move Hali’s arms they would get me to give her some more gas.

Then it was back to Emergency to wait till the Dr had read the xrays.
We were sitting there waiting when Hali said to me that she had seen Tommy go past the doorway.
It was the ambulance entrance we had come in.
I was a bit side tracked as I was trying to locate Nathan and I couldn’t get any answer on his phone.
I called up the Winnington’s to see if he was there and chatted with Elizabeth and commented to her that her brother had just come in.
She hadn’t heard anything so was thankful I had told her.
Very soon after I saw Tommy but the nurse said not to go talk to him cuz the woman he was with was very sick.
Then they pushed her bed past us and I saw it was Aimee.
Tommy followed and told me that they didn’t know what the matter was.
He looked so stunned & scared.
My mother’s heart just went out to him but I couldn’t hug him as they were rushing him past.

Soon after I realised that some of the family were just around the corner so I went to see them.
Had a chat and a very big cuddle with Grace.
Aimee had had a massive brain bleed and the Dr’s were saying that there was nothing they could do.
Nathan went off to help transport the rest of the family and Shanni & Azzan.
I so felt for Margaret and Dave & Aimee’s parents.
It was so very sad.
Nothing they could do, nothing we could do.
Apart from encourage, hug, cry, support and pray.
In tragedy like this we can pray for strength and comfort and even for understanding.
We can walk beside them and share their pain but we cannot carry it because we have no understanding of the depth of it unless we have walked it before.
In reality only God’s grace is sufficient in a time like this.

In amongst all of this Mahalia was having a cast put on her right arm.
The Dr had to manipulate her wrist so they gave her more localised pain meds and then I had to get her to breath deeply on the gas but it was still so unbearably painful that she couldn’t breath on it for crying.
Thankfully they got the job done quickly and efficiently and once the cast cooled down she felt a lot of relief.
They were planning to just splint the left arm to make it easier for her to use but when they did it is was still far too painful and she asked them to put a cast on it too.
We finally had that put on just before 8pm.
Then on discharge they gave her a copy of her x-rays.

Right – distal rad #~15-20dorsal angulation

Left – bilat wrist #s rad/ulner

Then one of the head nurses decided cuz we live so far away she needed to cut the right cast to allow room for swelling.
I had to use my cellphone camera to capture this cuz my camera was in the car.
She looked so cute with the earmuffs on.

Please don’t cut my arm off!!

It was so hard to leave the hospital knowing Margaret & Dave and the families were still in agony but there was nothing more I could do and my children were all very tired & wanting to go home.
So we headed off.
Stopped in at the video hire shop and got a load of dvds.
I figured Mahalia might need them in the next few days!!
Grabbed some food at the supermarket and then Nathan drove us as I ate.
The kids cuddled up in the back seat with Mahalia in the middle and her arms supported by a pillow.
I drove from the top of the Ronga.
When we were coming through the Garnes/Saville Reserve Mahalia was feeling sick.
So she and Shanni got out to get some air.
Then they repacked themselves with Azzan in the middle.
I was quite concerned cuz I knew Mahalia’s next pain meds were due but thankfully she went to sleep.
We got home at 11:30pm.
I gave Mahalia her painkiller and tucked her up into bed with pillows supporting her arms.
She was very grateful to be warm and cosy in her own comfy bed and was soon sound asleep.

The rest of us fell into bed soon after.
What a day it was!
 

 

A busy day in the kitchen

The girls were very busy in the kitchen on Wednesday.
They were cooking up a storm.
Shanni made this interesting noodle pancake.

It was so delicious that Mahalia made some to take to town.
Shanni made a lot of gluten free pizzas for Thursday’s lunch.
She spent all morning doing it and made a huge mess and then walked out to go feed the chickens.
I guess cleaning up afterwards is not really a priority

Nathan worked on some school work.
The men did mussel ropes and took all the kids out mustering in the afternoon.

I got all the accounts finalised and filed – yippee!

I was so brain dead after dinner that I crashed out and watched a couple of episodes of ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’.
Managed to get to bed not too late which was good.
If I had known the day that was to follow………….

 

Tuesday 27th September

We are all struggling to get our bodies in tune with daylight saving.
It takes days to alter our body clocks and everyone gets so tired cuz the days seem so long 

The tides were right after breakfast so Tim was anxious to get out the door to get the ’88 South’ back into the water.
It has been a long few weeks since it was last in the water so it was a celebration to see it cruising past with it’s clean blue hull into the wharf.

I was busy trying to get on top of the gst when Shanni came running in to tell me to bring my camera cuz Azzan was being cute.
I took 5 to go see what they were doing.
She had him in the workshop mixing paint.
She has found a stash of old random tins of ‘interesting’ colours.
So she is putting it to good use – outside of the house!!
She kept him at it till I got there by telling him it needed more mixing yet and of course cuz there was a machine in his hands he had no problem stirring it for a while.
I could hear him singing away as he worked

Shanni had decided it was time to clean out the boot box centipede shed.
There are boots and footwear for Africa in there which she hiffed out into boxes.

Then she gave the shed a good clean out.

Azzan stirring the paint in the workshop with the piles of boots blocking the doorway!

Once the paint was stirred to her satisfaction they got stuck in and painted all the shelves.
I made Azzan put old inside-out clothes on.
He had a great time.
They were having some very D&M conversations when I snuck up to get this photo.
Nice to hang out with your big sis and do something fun

He came down later in the arvo and told me I had to come see.
It is a bit difficult getting a photo of the complete shed but you can see what a brilliant job they have done.
Shanni had sorted out all the footwear and turfed old and broken and unneeded ones.
She now has all the boots size & type coded.
Let’s hope all the future users will adhere to keeping it this tidy!

Meanwhile, outside Mahalia was reclining on the trampoline with Tinga and entertaining Skip.
She had hung the washing out for me.
She has been a wee bit off the past few days.
She says nothing is wrong, that she is just tired.
I am wondering if she is having another growth spurt?

I brought all the invoices etc out to the kitchen table and Nathan helped sort them while I filed.
It was a huge help and we had them all done by lunch time.

He is working away at his school work.
He has two sets ready to post on Thursday and hopefully some more will be done to add to that by then too.

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting the accounts done on BankLink.
I was trying to finish before the close of the business day so I could get them to my accountant to suss out but I failed on that score.
It really has been quite complicated getting the old and new bank accounts merged and journaled this time.
Oh well, at least they will be in his inbox when he arrives at work today.

Tim & Gavin were doing mussel ropes most of the day.
I could hear them chatting away from up on the deck.
Tim is really enjoying Gavin’s company and willingness to learn new skills.

I had put a beef pot roast in the slow cooker at breakfast time.
Tim was worried about it being tough.
But after being covered with yummy veges and flavourings and cooking slowly all day it was delicious.
We all had a great feed – in fact it was too much for some and dessert was not necessary.
Because of daylight saving dinner seems so late these nights.
It is 9pm before we are finishing.
Just crazy!
No wonder we are all getting tired.
Tim got the kids to bed pretty smartly and he followed close behind them.
I needed to blob for a while after straining my brain over the accounts so I sat and watched a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy after dinner.

Mental Monday!

PS from Sunday
Shoshannah made another recipe from the NZ Gluten Free Cookbook for Sunday lunch.
It is a real cracker – I think we might have to buy our own copy once this one goes back to the library.
Here are some of the Mexican Bean pies she made.
They were rather delicious.

I overheard a conversation between Azzan & Shanni while she was cooking lunch at the stove.
Azzan questioned that salmon and tuna were not the same fish.
For some reason – maybe cuz he sees them coming out of similar cans he has thought they were the same!!
Interesting finding out what’s happening inside a wee fella’s head!

Azzan has discovered Sudoku.
He enjoys them so much that he took the book out to the spa last night!

Today was Monday – all day!

This morning we woke to snow half way down Mt Stokes and the surrounding hills across from us.
There had been some heavy rain during the night as a southerly weather change came through.
It was lovely to come out to the living room this morning and find Tim had lit the main fire.
I have been so cold in the house over the past few days.

Tim had cut up a lot of pumpkins cuz they are not keeping terribly well this year.
I got them ready to cook and peeled & cubed enough to make a pumpkin salad.
Then Nathan came and took over.
He spent all morning making pumpkin soups.

Shanni did her normal chores and then got onto her maths.
Mahalia & Azzan played out doors.
I tried to work with Azzan on his violin practice but he is in the same head space as his mother right now.

It was such a beautiful day that Shanni set the outside table.
It was lovely sitting out there getting a good dose of Vit D.

I spent most of the day in the study trying to get on with the accounts.
My head is just not in the right space to concentrate on them.
Dealing with the change of banks in the midst of it all and the confusion etc is driving me potty!
I did call up the accountant and he was helpful.
But I was still not coping and Shanni came in and caught me crying over the paperwork.
It is so hard to have to be tied to this stupid desk when the kids really need and want my attention.
And I would much rather be giving it to them that the stupid IRD.
I have been side tracking a little.
Got my blog caught up and a few other things sorted.

I am realising Azzan needs more mental stimulation and gets bored easily.
He was rather morose so I suggested he get a school desk and park it outside my study door so we could work together.
He on his school work and me on the accounts.
That way we can hold each other accountable!!
That worked for a wee while.

Tim & Gavin went out mustering late this arvo.
Tim is getting the sheep organised for tailing.
They were so late back that we had dinner without them.
The boys were in fine fettle tonight.
I was cracking up over this conversation.
But as you can tell they enjoy bantering with words!
The dictionary actually came out onto the table to verify some of the language and words being used
I only managed to record part of it….

Nathan – ‘If you carry on behaving like that people will think your cerebal cortex has an IQ of a retarded potato.’

On seeing Nathan searching for some new descriptive words in the dictionary…
Azzan – ‘ So you think you have found something that you think describes me which isn’t right.
Which makes me right and you wrong, which makes you a maniac.’

Daylight saving is really throwing us all out of kilter.
We are all feeling tired and the day is late before we realise it.
Time for bed.
The accounts will still be waiting for me in the morning

Sunday at our house

Sunday 25th September

It was a lovely day.
Shanni has been cleaning up all around the house and garden.
She wanted to rearrange the pots and barrels of plants.
They are incredibly heavy.
She convinced her dad and Gavin to move them for her.
Tim found that manoeuvering them onto a piece of carpet made them easier to move.

Then it was a case of pulling and pushing them to where she wanted them to go.

 Around the side of the house and ‘just there please Dad’!

Just a bit further and then turn it around a tad more so the plants are on the right side!

Next one is to go down under the cabbage tree.
Tim said id he moved it down there it was in no way going to be moved backup again so she better be pretty darn sure!

I got side tracked with the evidences of spring.
The wistaria is budding and looks so cool.

The flowering current is beautiful too.

Then this pot just had to be moved back where it was once Shanni had cleaned the deck.

This one was a bit of a lift too but Gavin made it look easy.

And the last one!
Bouncing it down the steps.

Jynx & Skip checking it all out.

The pots in their new positions.
I actually quite like them there.

The boot of little rabbits tucked in amongst them.

 And the boot of wee birds tucked in amongst the other pots.

The lovely blue pot in its new home.

Gavin & I were sitting in the chairs chatting once it was all done and then we were entertained by our resident Top Model

Graham came around just before midday, we talked and then had fellowship.
Lunched together.
Then I went off to bed.
My bro Murray called up so I chatted with him for a while and then went back to bed.
Got up for dinner.

Tim, Gavin & Shanni had gone out fishing in the dinghy so we had fresh fish for tea.
The casserole will wait for another day.
Just as well they improve with age

Tim & Gavin were going to The Croft to watch the rugby.
I was invited and was a bit torn.
Would like to have watched the game but my body needed to be horizontal.
So I opted to stay home.
Kids & I went to bed early after Shanni had given me a lovely massage.
I watched a bit more of Grey’s Anatomy.
Then lay and listened to the end of the game on the radio.
The All Blacks cleaned up the French 37-17.
Sounded like a great game and I wish I had’ve had the energy to go and watch it after all.

I knew Anson & Jesika were at the Warriors vs Melbourne Storm game in Melbourne.
I woke in the early hours of the morning and heard that NZ had beaten the Australians.
Way to go Warriors!!

Catchin’ up!

Thursday 22nd September

I was so not ready to get out of bed when the alarm went off at 4:45am.
But I dragged myself up and into the shower which helped to wake me somewhat.
We left Shoshannah sleeping.
She wasn’t ready to head back out to town.
Just the four of us went to town.
Tim got up early so he could find some mussel rope for us to take out to John.

It was a quiet trip out.
After I had shown Nathan where he needed to go to a later appointment we went and picked up Anson’s truck.
Nathan took the Terrano and went to The Wood and then on to music etc.
I took Azzan to his Cognitive Assessment.
Once we had met Shirley and Azzan was comfortable I left him with her for the next hour and a half.
Mahalia & I drove down to Tahunanui to visit John & Sally.
We had a cuppa with them and left the rope with John.

Went back to get Azzan at 11pm.
He was quite exuberant by the assessment and came out telling me that he would quite like to do the Online One Day School now.
He was rather anti the idea before this.
I met his assessor later and she just confirmed everything I have recognised over time.
Azzan is in the top 5% with an IQ of 125 and easily qualifies for the gifted programme.

I dropped the children at piano and went for my counseling appointment.
This time I was meeting with a clinical psychologist as well as they were doing an assessment.
It was a pretty intense time but we got through in around 1.5hours.
Chrissy took the kids to gymnastics for me and we all met up there.

Chrissy then dropped the two young ones off at ballet for me so I could go with Nathan to another appointment.
It was all rather emotionally distressing but very cathartic.
Let’s hope we can now move on in a positive direction now.

From there we met up with our new wwoofer Gavin from UK at the library.
We loaded his gear into the Terrano and Nathan & he headed home around 4:30pm.
Azzan & I went to the library and then picked up Mahalia from dancing.
I had not had a chance to stop all day so we went to Starbucks and sat a while and had something to eat and drink.
Then zipped through The Warehouse and Countdown and left town at 6:30ish.

Friday 23rd

A day of cleaning, washing, and getting back into the swing of things.

Mahalia & Azzan spent the morning giving Anson’s truck a really good clean out.
It was sooooo dirty & dusty cuz it gets used around the farm.
It looks so good now.
Too good to use in fact


Shanni spent the day we were in town painting in the kitchen.
She was sick of being inside so Friday she was outside building a fence.

Shanni is very excited cuz her ring necks are laying eggs.
She pruned the bushes around the bank.

I helped Nathan with his Ancient Greece Newspaper.
We worked on the computer finding our way around the programme all afternoon and into the evening.
Neither of us had used it before so it was a good learning curve.
It was interesting to do and it also meant I could put off doing the gst for a bit longer

Tim has a list he needs to get done before we go away on holiday.
So he and Gavin have been working through the list.
He spent most of Friday trying to find a leak in the boat’s engine.
He now has to find someone to come and weld it up.
They are also working on the wharf.
It is coming along really well now.



Saturday 24th September

I helped Nathan with his Greek Newspaper most of the day.
It was a lot of fun and I was learning heaps from Nathan re the Ancient Greeks and their world.
Tim & Gavin painted the underneath of the ’88 South’.
They both came back with the blue spotty dotty disease

Mahalia & Azzan have been spending lots of time playing in their Treesville huts.
Shanni walked Bubba and weeded.

I made a casserole for dinner in the Slow Cooker.
Major problem discovered midday – I had turned it on warm – not hot so it was not going to be done in time for dinner.
Thankfully Tim had also taken out a frozen beef & Venison stew so we had that instead.
Gavin is allergic to dairy products.
It is not a major problem here as we don’t use a lot.
But you have to stop and think a bit when cooking and it is fun to create dairy free meals.
My Mega Mud Puddle Cake recipe is perfect cuz it is dairy and egg free and it is huge.
I made one and it is lasting for days of desserts

The kids watched a movie in the arvo.
I went to bed for a nana nap and watched Grey’s Anatomy on the portable dvd player.

Finally – a post on The day it happened!!

I languished in the spa for a wee while this morning.
Only problem is when it is hot I can’t stay in there too long
Probably a good thing as I did have lots to do today.

I got onto the accounts today as it is gst time again.
I have not used BankLink since we changed our banks.
I have been liasoning with one of the accountants to try and get it all up and running but no luck yet.
Had to wait till 11:30am to see if it loaded today.

Shanni decided today was a good day for the kids to clean out the play house.
She got them started.
Then when she turned her back they disappeared.
I found them playing in another hut near the Cottage.
Rounded them up and sent them back to finish the job.

While Hali & Azzan were supposedly doing the playhouse Shanni was cleaning everywhere else.
Man! Has that girl got industrious since she came home.
She cleaned up all around the backdoor and rearranged all the plant pots.

While I was waiting for 11:30am to happen I made date scones.
They were jolly delicious, even if I do say so myself!

Shanni moved into the wash house and gave it a very thorough clean out.

Azzan brought me in this gorgeous daffodil.

Shanni cleaned out the meat safe and found a heap of paint.
So she decided to paint her bird aviary and the workshop wall.
Looks great now.

I worked with Azzan on his piano pieces but he had a melt down about his violin practice.
I found his music in the rubbish bin and his violin out the backdoor.
Needless to say I was very unimpressed.

Tim drenched sheep this morning.
This arvo he worked on the wharf and did mussel ropes.
Then he zipped along to Waterfall Bay in the dinghy and finally found what we needed.

Mahalia was asking me all day if she could make pavlova.
We finally got it made late this arvo.
It was delicious for dessert.

I got a heap of mail and stuff done today.
Am trying to be ready for town tomorrow.
I’m not really in the mood for another trip but I guess if I can get to bed soon I will be fine in the morning.
Just have to keep the fire going for a while longer to ensure I get a hot shower in the morning.

The past few days….

Sunday 18th September

I woke early and tossed around for a while.
Then finally went back to sleep.
I was having a very vivid dream.

For some reason Angela had decided she need to give my hair a trim.
She took a huge hunk from the front.
I remember running around trying to see in mirrors what she had done.
But no mirror was clear enough.

Then Cat came in a woke me at 8:30am to tell me that she and Leeann were about to leave.
So I never did find out how much hair Angela had cut

I staggered out of bed and said goodbye to the girls.
Leeann was heading south to her new job at Mt Cook and Cat was going north back to her job.

We had a very slow morning.
The Harris’s packed up and we all chilled out for a while.
Found food along the way.
Had fellowship together and found more food.
Then they had to leave.

Once they had gone Tim & I had a long D&M with Nathan.
We had some major issues to sort out.
That took the rest of the arvo.

I had asked Mahalia & Azzan to empty and cleaned the spa while I was away.
They did a brilliant job.
I went to fill it and found it had been sitting empty with the power still on!
They had not known to turn it off.
There was an error message showing.
Tim got the hose connected and we filled it up.
Found that it would not go afterwards.
We were worried that the motor might have gotten cooked.
Nothing I could do so I turned it off.


Dinner was easy.
I needed to unwind.
I watched a movie.
It was actually quite good despite having to keep up with the subtitles.

Monday 19th September

I called up the spa people.
They got back to me later in the day and we got it all sorted.
It is going thankfully so I did the chemical run and then left it overnight to heat up.

I spent all morning in the study trying to get on top of the mail and emails.
Didn’t get around to having breakfast.
Shanni got busy in the kitchen.
She is very happy to be home.
She has been sussing out a few of the gluten free books I have and made this spinach slice.

When she realised I hadn’t had breaky she came back in and presented me with brunch.
It was very appreciated and delicious.


We had a lot of washing to put through.
Shanni folded almost all of it.

Azzan tidied up his room then came and told me that I was not allowed int he school room cuz he had a surprise for me.
More about that later

Mahalia has been left in charge of Skip because Cat is on standby to go to Australia again for work and then she will be off doing the Cook to Cook adventure.
Mahalia is enjoying him and spent most of the day ‘training’ him

I was really tired and was heading off to bed but ended up having a late night chat with Jesika on Facebook first.
She was in a lot of pain when we left Melbourne and it appears that she may have put something out of joint at the base of her ribcage while she was dancing.
Her chiro is saying no dancing for a few weeks.
Needless to say, that is going down like a lead balloon



Tuesday

I didn’t sleep well.
Woke feeling really depressed.
There is a lot of emotional turmoil going on right now and I am not coping with it at all well 
I stayed in bed late, well late for me.
Sort of ‘pull the covers over my head’ stuff and it might all go away!

The spa was getting up to temperature but I felt like a bath.
The water was hardly warm so I went out and lit the fire.
I got busy and had to wait for some business phone calls.
I thought the water would be hot enough by late morning but there had been too much run off and it was even colder.

Tim & Azzan took off to Waterfall Bay to do a couple of jobs before the mussel guys arrived.
Then just as they left the mussel men called up to say they would be at the wharf in 5 mins.
I had to send Nathan up the hill after him to get him to come back.
No sooner hung up from them and the phone rang again.
The accountant this time.
Got all of those calls out of the way and gave up on the bath.
I decided that the only reasonably hottish place was the spa.
So I discreetly hopped in, hoping the guys at the wharf with Tim were too occupied to be looking up at the house!
I lazed in their with my book for ages.
I am reading ‘Breaking Silence: The Kahui Case’
It is sadly interesting and gripping and very worth while reading.
It ended up getting too cool so I eventually clambered out and got dressed.

By this time the girls had been working really hard and had cleaned all the bird cages.
Shanni has also spent a considerable time sorting out her room, sorting clothes and generally moving back in.
When we were at Ikea she fell in love with a duvet set so I bought it for her for her birthday.
She got it all set up on her bed.


It is covered with funky alphabet lettering.



Tim & Azzan finally made it over to Waterfall but unfortunately didn’t bring back the right stuff.
We had leftovers for lunch.
Tim has been doing mussel ropes and working on the wharf most of the arvo.
I sat in the rocking chair in the sun and read my book and drank herb tea for a while.
Then I worked with Azzan on his piano pieces.

I decided I need to do something profitable so I began sorting the piles of going out stuff in the hallway.
Azzan was helping me.
We got a few boxes done and then we moved along to the piles of books which he had taken ages ago and brought back but not put where they were.
As it is a major sorting job I am trying to cull out books and things we do not want anymore.

I ended up going into the school room to put some books away.
The sight that greeted me just finished me off.
I totally lost it.
Azzan had been in there yesterday and had decided to re-sort all of my carefully classified books.
I have many, many shelves of educational books and they are all carefully separated into subject and type.
He had decided to re-organise them and then got lost and the mess that met me was just too much.
I dissolved into tears and shut myself in my room and sobbed and sobbed.
When I finally got it all out of my system I went and we started to put everything back the way it was before he got helpful!

He was very apologetic and came to help me.
Then every time I sat down he would come and give me a cuddle.
I think he has the message that he is welcome to read the books but one at a time!!
For some reason when he is interested in something he has to take the whole series

Shanni has cooked dinner tonight.
She is a sweetie.
Lovely to have her home.

Tim had quite a lot of phone calls to make.
After he had done that he tucked the kids into bed.
I watched an episode of Midsomer Murders.
Anson text me his number in Bendigo so we called him up and had a chat.
He seems really happy there and is enjoying his boss and having plenty of work which is great.

Happy Birthday Timmy :-)

Saturday 17th September

We had to vacate our room by 10am.
It was a bit of a struggle but we managed it.
We made our way to Amigo‘s in Tahunanui for brunch.
It was fun to find Melissa waitressing there.
She is the granddaughter of Murray & Marie who used to live at ‘The Croft’ for 10 years after Tim’s mother left there so we had lots to chat about while she worked.
Tim had the full breakfast and I had enchiladas.
Very tasty and a good start to our day.

Just after we had finished John & Sally arrived for a chat & drinks.
We enjoyed our lazy Saturday morning with them for a bit longer.
Then all of a sudden it was midday and we needed to begin moving along.

We had time to get a few groceries, vege seeds for Shanni, pay a quick visit to Farmers to get a shirt for Azzan, and then with Starbucks drinks in hand we left town and headed homeward.

We stopped off at Foresters Café and Restaurant to meet up with Merv.
I have always wanted to go there so this was a great opportunity to case the joint.
It is a lovely spot.
The folk there have done a brilliant job of the cafe and Mount Richmond Estate accommodation.
I will most certainly be returning and recommending the place to all.

We arrived home at 7pm.
Cat & Leeann were there.
Another surprise for Tim that I had managed to keep from him!
Cat had caught a possum.
There was a baby in the pouch so the kids were enjoying playing with it.

Shanni was pleased to see her Poppo.
Their birthday’s are only 4 days apart so they usually celebrate together.

Chrissy & Mahalia had worked hard to prepare a delicious dinner.
Dessert was an apple and a boysenberry shortcake.
Yummy!

I gave Shanni her present.
A 3 season down sleeping bag.

Of course she had to try it out straight away.

Nathan brought in THE surprise which I had been keeping secret for several weeks.
With the help of David & Alan we had managed to purchase it and keep it hidden from Tim.

It was a Kimber Montana 84 7mm .08 rifle with suppressor and VX-R Leupold scope.
Alan had mounted this set of antlers for Tim.
They were from a stag he had shot a few months back.

He was pretty happy with it

Asher was more interested in the baby possum in the sock!!

Chrissy made a carrot cake.
Candles – 60 + 2 = 62!!

Happy Birthday Timmy

Russell & Tim admiring the antlers.
 

It was a great few days – and a lovely evening.

Thanks so much to Russell & Chrissy for helping with the children.