We're back!

Finally our internet is back and after so much time I am a little out of the habit of posting. I suppose though, that I shall give a brief run down of what's been going on and hope that it will satisfy. Sharlene is right into the swing of things at school. Time is flying past now that I am at home and the weeks seem to be merging in together, I am really enjoying the relatively stress free days and having weekends where I am not concerned about getting enough sleep or being overly jealous of my time.

Sharlene has started to attend a water aerobics class on Monday afternoons. I am taking the boys to the library for reading, songs and craft on Tuesdays. On Thursday, we go to the SDA church for Mainly Music and on Friday, I have started to take the kids to playgroup. We all were invited to go to the highschool and play indoor hockey today (as a result of which we are feeling quite stiff and sore now). Afterward we went to a friends house and swam in their pool.

We've had a LOT of water here. Well, a lot compared to what the area usually receives. About 10 days ago, the school was closed because all the roads to Queens Beach and the highway, both north and south were cut. Water went through the church hall and it smells quite musty now.

I have been playing some cat and mouse games with Diesel. He has been playing the part of Houdini and escaping from our back and front yards everytime we leave the house. Everytime he has found a way out, I have patched it up. Everytime I patch it up, he finds another way to escape. He has become a fixture at the primary school, which is over our back fence. He is able to scale the fence and that has made it hard to contain him. Several times we have gone to church and he has escaped the yard (after being tied up as well) and followed us. What a faithful dog! What a frustrating situation. I finally have him contained under the house (after some more patch up work), but that is only a short term remedy as he cannot get outside. If we go away for the weekend, there is a dilemma.

Both boys are going well. Azariah is now sitting independently and army crawling around the place. No electrical cable is safe when he is around. Zemiel has improved his diction and vocabulary, his pronounciation of his p's, b's, f's and t's are getting clearer all the time. He is also starting to sight recognise certain letters of the alphabet. Currently he knows, e, o, l, z, q, and s. He has also been impressing us with his counting. Today at hockey he counted the spare balls up to 8.

Well, so much for being brief. I'll put more up another day.

Photo editing

Something else that I have been doing in my spare time has been editing some of my favourite photos. I know that this may be taken as 'cheating' but I plead for understanding. Firstly, some of my editing is an effort to recapture the photos that I originally took, added text to, then lost the original, and was left with the text version. So editing out the text from some of those photos is one of the challenges I have undertaken. Secondly, with a few shots, I have tried to remove the impact of man (cars, ships, cityscapes, powerlines) from the picture in order to better exhibit its innate beauty.

Case study 1: Text un-editing
Okay, this took a bit of work but I am pretty proud of my effort to restore this photo to its 'original' awesomeness.

Case study 2: City un-scaping
The edited version of this photo took a long time to produce, and it may not be finished yet. However, I think it worthy of being used as an example.
First, here is the original: a western NSW sunset at Gunnedah, just after the rains.

And now, the edited version. I notice that some picture quality has been lost when it was re-saved. But the general idea is still there.

First weeks in different jobs

Our phone has been fixed but our internet is still not working. So here we are again at Sharlene's parents place catching up on all our unchecked emails, forwarded snail mail, and try to give you an indication of what we've been up to over the last 2 weeks. 


Firstly, Sharlene has begun her teaching. She has a yr 8 class, two yr 9 classes, and a yr 11 class. She is teaching both math and science and a vocational education subject. She also has a yr 10 role class. She has been coming home quite tired and sometimes quite stressed as well. We have had some growing pains, trying to get Azariah to take to a bottle for his day feeds and for him to feel comfortable with dad putting him to bed, but generally all those things are sorting themselves out well. 


I have spent my time, washing, cleaning, cooking, folding clothes, helping Zemmy with his language or relaxing. 


I and the boys went for a walk down to the 'Front beach' last Wednesday and we sat and watched the seagulls fight over some hot chips thrown to them by another family. Zemmy loved the sea gulls so much that he even ignored the many butterflies that breezed by. Not only that, but there were also about 20 black cockatoos resting in the tree above us and their relaxed calls uplifted me. On Thursdays, a parent group called Mainly Music is run. It started this week for the year and it was quite good. It is run by one of the mums from Bowen church and held in the sabbath school rooms. What a fantastic outreach to the community! I met a lot of parents there, even some of the parents of students that are possibly in Sharlene's classes. 


One of the most amusing things that occurred last week was when a teacher of Bowen school (just out our back door) began calling out for help. She had inadvertently locked herself into her storeroom. Because it was a Saturday, it was unlikely other teachers would be around. Luckily, we heard her and I let her out. We got to talking for a while after that and it turns out that Sharlene teaches two of her kids. 


Diesel has made himself into an escape artist again. He has found (or made) a hole in the back fence and escaped into the school grounds on several occasions - usually when we have left the house. He still pines and even cries when we have gone. I have since patched up the hole, so hopefully it was the only one.


Under our house it is dark and damp. We've had a lot of rain recently and the mosquitoes are LOVING it. But we are not loving them. In fact, it is my daily ritual, after farewelling Sharlene, to take my can of bug spray and re-declare war on those little flying vampires every morning. There have been casualties on both sides (I have had more bites than I can count). Now the rain has gone for a while, and in the sun the humidity is oppressive. Azariah is coping very well with the heat, and so am I to a degree, but both Sharlene and Zemiel have heat rash. All this week, Zem has been covered from toe to nose in painful red welts. Both boys are enjoying their bath time.


I've started to toilet train Zemmy. I am trying to get him over his phobia of peeing into the potty. I hope that today I had some success. Zem holds it in rather than going in the potty, but today, he stayed on the potty until he could hold it no longer. Hopefully, it is a positive step. He is wearing underwear in the mornings now instead of nappies. 


I will try to post again tomorrow if I find the time.