A Busy Week

Wow, where has the month gone?!?! In the last two weeks, I have been about as busy as I ever want to be.

Azariah has now had his 18 month immunisations.  Chloe came and spent a day with us. Even on that day (Thursday) we were run off our feet with things to do. Zemiel had his first day at the Bowen Special Unit and we finally met the other little girl in Bowen with implants. (They didn't work for her). The teachers there are learning sign because of us and are even getting some training at the TAFE. Sharlene and I have just been given permission to join in on these sessions.

While Zemiel was at school, Azariah went to Mainly Music. He loves to dance and move. After this, we picked up Zemiel and we stopped at Front Beach for the boys to have a play. They promptly ran into the surf, clothes and all. Zemiel at least had the sense to pause at the water's edge for me to take off his implants, but Azariah just kept on walking until a wave knocked him over backwards. That boy has no fear. We then pulled Sharlene out of school for lunch at Muller's Lagoon. Later that afternoon, our Dad's Playgroup hosted a waterfight. We found all our old water pistols and small buckets and even went to the shop and bought some new ones. Thus equipped, we proceeded to drench each other. I got a soaking, while one of the other dads hardly got touched. Zemiel started to swim in one of the water sources. Azariah poured water on himself. The other kids were quick learners and adapted rapidly to the quantity (of the buckets) rather than  accuracy (of the pistols). Indeed, the pistols were soon discarded as ineffective. Especially when I grabbed the hose...

The next day, Sharlene's parents came up. Patti stayed with Sharlene and the boys for the weekend whilst Brian and I travelled up to Townsville for the Elder's and Minister's meetings held by the Northern Australian Conference. For me it was a very spiritual and personally challenging weekend. For Sharlene it was more exhausting. Azariah took sick while I was gone and Zemiel ended up with some sort of red mark on his hand. Sharlene is unsure if it was an insect or spider bite or whether it was a burn, but it has since blistered up, busted and now starting to heal. Zem is a brave kid, he only tells us that it is sore when we touch it or ask to look at it.

We came back from the meetings on Sunday, and left again for Townsville on Monday. Our agenda for the day was to look at some cars, and to have a get together with all of Zemiel's stakeholders. Royal Children's hospital was there, as was his advisory visiting teacher. His Speech Pathologist was also present. The meeting was a bit slow to get started, but I think we got some good goals out of it by the end.

Tuesday was a quieter day. First we went to the Neighbourhood Centre to have my photo taken for the local newspaper and then we went to our regular Library Storytime. But the boys were so tired that we went home early. Finally, I finished with tutoring in the afternoon.
This is the picture that was taken.

On Wednesday, we went back up to Townsville. This time to have his speech therapy session. He has made good progress with his 'n' sounds. Also, his play 'babble' is starting to really take off.  I think I caught what Azariah had. So with a touch of nausea and a resounding headache, we soldiered on through the day. I also finally went ahead and bought the bee suit that I've been wanting for a while. For those who don't know, Sharlene and I are trying to get a bee hive operating. We'll be going halves with another fellow here in Bowen. The suit is coming from America so will let you know more about it when it arrives.

If I could delete any day of this past week it would have been Thursday. The 24 hour bug that was going around hit me full swing and, and the boy's new bed set came. Their bedroom was a mess with packing boxes and the boys were upset with the change in routine. They didn't sleep or rest and generally ran amuck.

Friday, and I managed to finish the bed set. Zemiel also had his Tele Conferencing session, where his interest in spiders was exploited.

I  am so very thankful that we keep Sabbath. I need a day just to chill. Tonight we were going to be heading to Mackay for a youth rally and tomorrow I should have been going to Proserpine for a regional day. But we have decided to drop all that (due to illness and tiredness) and just stay home and recover. The boys are sleeping in their new beds for the first time tonight. We even bought matching sheet sets for them. So far, they have slept soundly.

I apologise for the blow-by-blow account, but perhaps Zemiel or Azariah will find it interesting reading in future years.