just plodding along

Dictionary.com

Hope⋅less [hohp-lis]
–adjective
1. providing no hope; beyond optimism or hope; desperate: a hopeless case of cancer.
2. without hope; despairing: hopeless grief.
3. impossible to accomplish, solve, resolve, etc.: Balancing my budget is hopeless.
4. not able to learn or act, perform, or work as desired; inadequate for the purpose: As a bridge player, you're hopeless.

I'll take 2 and 3, with a side of 4 and smidge of 1 please.

catastrophic!

there are new fire danger levels, as explained here

full on!

mmmm it's mac time

i had an Oreo McFlurry for the first time in over a year and a half - since before I was pregnant (since soft serve is a no-no). it was so very yummy.

in a million years

i can't wait until the day (or night) that i get a full, uninterrupted and unlimited nights sleep. oh boy.

thankyou sir

i don't remember much but the very last lines of my dream as i woke up this morning

Me: I'm sorry for embarrassing you Sir
Jed Bartlett: Of all the people who have caused me embarrassment this week, you are not one of them (smiles, turns and strides away)
Me: Thankyou Sir (smiles with tear in her eye)

cool

Top Gear Time

Good on Sam. he bought Howie and me Top Gear Season 10 (including the Botwana Special) and a Stig keyring torch for our birthdays. Way cool!

In related news i am disappointed that Top Gear is moving to Channel Nine. Partly because it sucks that SBS doesn't have it anymore, partly because that means we can't watch it on the projector each week unless we get the aerial fixed, and partly because I'm wondering whether they'll chop it up more to fit into their schedule. And then move the time slot around every few weeks.

godfrey gold

oscar loves going past godfreys. he loves the ball that's held in the air. who wouldn't!

car go bang

now i've had my fair share (and maybe more) of car accidents, but i don't think i've ever been quite this bad

funeral, food and fun

yesterday i found the easiest way to get through a funeral is to have an almost 10 month baby sitting on your lap. ah the distraction! it was great. and he was such a good boy too.

but the funeral was fine - it was just a short service with family only. then a lunch back at my parents place. old people dominated the landscape as grandpa had lots of brothers and sisters. i hadn't seen any of them for a good 15 years. but i didn't really get to talk to anyone much anyway.

then last night the parentals and the noobs came over the our place to have takeaway (chickens plus at noob and howie's extreme desire). it was a lot of fun chatting and laughing for a few hours.

good job family.

then tomorrow we have lunch at the noob's to celebrate kimberly's 21st - it'll be nice to spend some time with half-ish of dad's side of the family. hopefully oscar and elyse make good playmates as well.

28

birthday day.

it was hot. still is inside the house.

my four boys were good to me.

i got a 3.0 tonne greenhouse gas emission offset (to cover duckie for at least a year), a stiggy bank and 30 Rock Season 3 to come. sweet!!

in this digital age, I also got lots of lovely smses, FB messages, emails and tweets. thanks peoples. and some monies last friday at my family birthday lunch.

but birthdays seem to be much less of a deal as you get older. and now with a baby too. there is no hoopla. there was a doctor's appointment to go to. the post office to visit. washing to hang out.

thanks to tom cooking dinner though. i'd forgotten it was my birthday when i'd decided i'd thaw chicken for tonight. so no RSL dinner for me!

only two more years til 30. apparently that is a big deal. meh.

chocolatier

sometimes i want to eat all the chocolate in the world (excluding dark chocolate).

but then i'd probably explode.

the sucky thing at the moment is that oscar seems to react badly if i eat chocolate in the daytime. he wakes up at night crying - i guess it gives him a gut pain or something. so i have to save all my cravings through the day for the evenings. not that we often have chocolate in the house. but when we do, boy oh boy is it exciting!

brooklyn

this afternoon we went to brooklyn, just for something different. it was a lovely afternoon for it.

oscar having a go of my frosty fruit. i think it was a bit too frosty

watching the boats go by

better things to do than look at the view

two updates

Firstly, Grandpa finally decided it was time to go. He'd been breathing on his own for two days! But now he's in heaven with his Lord, in his brand new body, with all its parts working as they should be. No more bung kidneys, heart, ears. No more shaking. Very cool.

Secondly, I visited the parentals place today and saw my baby Xander. The poor thing. He doesn't look good. His eye is very obviously damaged. The lens is gone. And the eyeball has been lacerated, and it's out of place. So he's on a bunch of medications until his operation on Tuesday to fight any nasties and for pain relief. Hopefully all goes well with the op, and he bounces back well. Should do. But he isn't too pretty to look at at the moment. Poor little thing.

Lunch on the Park

Yesterday we had a family lunch at the Sheraton on the Park to celebrate my and Grandpa's birthdays. Grandma was adamant that we still go even though Grandpa is still in hospital edging his way closer to Jesus (he is a stubborn man with a much too strong body).

Anyway, it was Oscar's first time there, and for once we were all able to be there.

Howie, Debs, Oscar and I got there early so Oscar could get an early lunch. Halfway through feeding him in what I thought was a discrete corner of the lounge (which was empty anyway) I noticed the security camera in the roof right in front of us. So some fat man in a booth got a few good eye fulls. Lucky him.

Oscar then went out on the balcony thing to have a look at all the buses and cars and taxis and trucks driving past Hyde Park

he was too busy for posing for photos

We then waited for the rest of the family. There was plenty to keep us amused. Like a lot of American athletes here for the World Masters Games - not sure if they were Basketball, Baseball, or Football players.

But whatever they were, they were loud!

Life is never boring with Auntie Debbie around

Nor with Uncle Noob

We had a very nice lunch

Howie had a very nice dessert as well

Yum.

the fun theory

to top it off

Mum just rang me to say that they took Xander to the vet this morning because when he came home yesterday his eye was all puffy etc. The vet said that there are problems with the lens that may have been caused my another cat or a twig or something, and he has to have antibiotics and then his eye removed in an operation on tuesday.

That way sucks. My little Xander. How's his timing. I hope he is ok.

:(

this afternoon we were rung to come in to the hospital and say goodbye to Grandpa. they were going to take out all the tubes etc and leave him be (while sedated). after the dialysis his kidneys still weren't working well enough. and because Grandpa didn't want any intervention, there isn't much else to be done. his body is strong, but his organs have failed him. we don't know when he will actually pass. the hospital will let us know.

so we went and said goodbye. although i couldn't actually say goodbye outloud, i did it internally. i'm glad that he is going peacefully. i'm glad that he has lived a full and interesting life. i'm glad he is my grandfather. i'm glad he was so proud of his family. of Oscar. he loved our little boy. and that i'll treasure.

so goodbye Grandpa. you are an amazing man.

photographer
carpenter
electronics wizz
accountant
mechanic
traveller
pilot
gardener
husband
father
grandfather
great grandfather
man of God

my grandpa

some of you may already know about my grandpa. well, he is in hospital, in intensive care, at the moment. has been for a week now. since just after his birthday. he has pneumonia. he's hooked up to all kinds of machines to help his body heal, rather than machine's to keep him alive. although they are helping to do that too while his body catches up. he is intubated and sedated, and has been for most of the time in there.

i visited him on monday with debs. i was half expecting to see him all frail and small looking in the bed, as older people tend to look when unwell in hospital. but he didn't look too bad. obviously not well or comfortable, but he didn't look frail, despite all the machines.

the doctors think he could end up fine - avoiding any unforeseen complications. one doctor said that grandpa is a 90 year old man in the body of a 60 year old. whereas he is used to seeing the opposite.

we are hoping and praying that grandpa's body will respond to the various treatments and that he will indeed be fine.

although he's lived a good 91 years, i reckon he's got a good few left in him. if God decides otherwise, that's fine. but i'd like grandpa to stick around a bit longer.

ABC of me

A - Age: 27
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: Dusting
D - Dogs' name: I don't have one
E - Essential start your day item: Breakfast
F - Favorite color: Blue, orange
G - Gold or Silver: Silver
H - Height: 162cm
I - Instruments you play: Flute, piano
J - Job title: SAHM
K - Kid(s): Oscar, 9 months
L - Living arrangements: renting a house, us and Tom
M - Mum's name: Rosemary
N - Nicknames: various
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Kidney op when four years old, I think that's all
P - Pet Peeve: Umm.. bad (slow) driving
Q - Quote from a movie: "Yippee ki-yay..."
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: One sister - Debs
T - Time you wake up: Initially anywhere from 4-5:30am then about 7am
U- Underwear: Bonds
V - Vegetable you dislike: Zucchini
W - What makes you run late: Other people, traffic
X - rays you've had: umm, eye socket, wisdom teeth, chest. I think that's all. But also had MRI and ultrasounds
Y- Yummy food you make: I'm not a huge cook... but I like the banana bread I made recently
Z - Zoo favorite: Chimpanzees

Your turn

the remainder

the reason we were in newcastle was for phil and hannah's wedding. i didn't know phil or hannah, but howie did.

so as saturday afternoon arrived, we got ourselves ready for the ceremony.

oscar hasn't been to a wedding for a few months, so he got a new outfit. don't oscar and his dad scrub up well

an attempt at a family pic, but someone was a little distracted.

here they are already mr and mrs. it was a nice ceremony, even not knowing them

afterwards there was a lot of slice to eat (probably made by old ladies). we chatted with carlyn and bevis - the only other people we knew. and soon it was time for bevis to depart and carlyn to join us at our place while oscar got ready for bed. tamara, the night's babysitter, also arrived. yay tamara. unfortunately there wasn't any water in the place for some reason - sorry bout that T!

the reception was at the life saving club - a canape reception. howie, carlyn and i arrived, got drinks, and found chairs which we stayed in for the evening. we willed waitstaff to bring us food. sometimes it worked, often it didn't.

a few speeches, a bit of music, and it was 9pm. i drove carlyn to the station to get a train back to sydney, and by the time i got back the reception was all over!

check the wedding car - yeh!

howie and i thought about walking around the fair next door but there were a lot of scary teenagers, so instead we headed back to our place via 24 hour kmart and coles (to get some water since it was still off at the place).

we thanked tamara and her cool jumper

howie rang the owner of the place to tell him about the water. at about 11pm a ute, a truck, and two guys pulled up outside, put a pipe in the ground and started spilling water all over the street. the ute guy drove off and the truck guy stood there with a light wand. here is a blurry photo

i stupidly stayed up for ages with howie looking stealthily out the window to see what was happening (not much). but the water was back. the next morning we could shower so all was good.

sunday morning we got up, got ready, packed, and set off back home at 9am. this time it was freeway all the way baby.

oscar had a little nap.

i wish i could have too. except a more comfortable one.

and that was our little trip north.

new in town

here we are in newcastle.

we left home at about midday yesterday

it wasn't long until oscar was making his own fun

we took the charlestown exit, without really realising, until we were on it, that it was the scenic route. ah well. we journeyed up the pacific highway through various towns to our first hotel stop to pick up the key to our apartment.

and here we are in georgetown. it's pretty nice on the inside. pretty not on the outside.

and there were complimentary items in the fridge

after oscar had a feed and a nap, we headed to the local shops.

where it seems it is christmas all year round

curious as to the presence of excessive Christmas lights, i looked them up on the web. wow.

we also went briefly into newcastle information centre to get a magnet, of course. i'd forgotten how derelict newcastle looks - all the empty stores in hunter street etc. but erica told me this morning about renew newcastle which we might try and check out this morning.

in other news, we are actually up here for a wedding. and about 15 minutes out of newcastle, howie said to me "you remembered the present yeh"... NO I DID NOT! so that's a bit of a shame. that's one of two things that i know i've forgotten. that will teach me not to make a list!

awkward

i like this website. sometimes you have to search through it a bit to find the more golden ones. but there's plenty of them there if keep trying. it is highly american though. and highly 80s/90s. which probably adds to the effect.

for example...

vegemite

So Kraft has chosen a new name for it's watered down vegemite - Vegemite Cheesybite.

Other names that were top of the list: Vegemite Vegemate, Vegemite Snackmate, Vegemite Vegemild and Vegemite Creamymate (from here). They probably couldn't use Cheesymite because of Bakers Delight (just found in wiki that that is why!).

Whatever the name, i'm not going to buy it. Have you looked at the nutritional information panel on the jar? It's not so good for you.

odometer

Today Duckie ticked over 100000km.

That means I've driven him over 50000km in 4.5 years. Go son! I'm sure trips to Armidale, Taree, Orange, Melbourne and a lot of work driving have helped.

And to celebrate the petrol light is flashing. Hopefully I'll get to a service station tomorrow.

91 not out

october, as we all know, is the month of birthdays.

and today i would like to wish my grandpa a very happy 91st birthday!

here he is in his 'younger' days - 70 years old.

tomorrow we're having a surprise afternoon tea for him - just family dropping in and saying 'hi' really.

my grandpa has a pacemaker, and he recently had the batteries replace (which is once every seven years i think, and it's the second or third time they've been replaced already). he told them that he doesn't want the batteries replaced next time. so i guess we all have to make the most of the remaining almost seven years. power on grandpa!

and although he's nowhere near 91, i'd also like to wish john a happy birthday too!

Genghis

I'm babysitting the Carlton's fish, Genghis, for the next week. He's a Siamese Fighting Fish.

All I have to do is feed him four pellets of fish food each day. And not let him play with the turtles.

Hopefully all will go well.

foreegg

yesterday oscar had his first boo boo, as they call it in the business.

he and his pram took a tumble down our front steps. and his head hit the brick path. poor little munchkin. so he was pretty upset, and a huge egg appeared on his forehead as well as a few grazes. we decided to take him to emergency, just to get him checked out.

after having a look at him, they kept him in for four hours observation, being a head injury and all. he had some panadol and was soon smiling again. the egg went down relatively quickly also. it was a long time to stay in one room but he did so well. what a good boy!

plus he had mummy and daddy and a bunch of nurses to keep him amused.

we are seeing our GP tomorrow as a follow up. but pretty much since he had the panadol at the ED he's been back to his normal self.

thank goodness. and praise God.