Big Nut

Something funny occurred last week and I thought I should write it down before the whole event is lost to obscurity in our memories.

Last Sabbath was Adrian's last day of his week visit from America. We spent the afternoon at Sharlene's parent's place, lounging around and generally relaxing. Adrian had found some coconuts and sugar cane stalks during the week and brought them back to the house. At some point in the afternoon Brian went outside with Azariah and Zemiel to show them how to eat some sugar cane, which they enjoyed while he was there. But when he returned, Azariah soon found another use for the sugar cane. He began to hit a coconut and shout at the top of his voice, "I'm hitting the big nut! I'm hitting the big nut!"

Gideon

Zemiel and Azariah have a favourite story that I tell them at nights before bed. It is the story of Gideon and how he put to flight the Midianite army who had invaded Israel. Azariah loves it because there's fighting involved and breaking pots, and Zemiel enjoys the depiction of the fires flaring up and horns blowing. I sign the story to them and encourage the boys to tell the story back to me. Zemiel is getting quite good at retelling the story.

Birthday # 33

Yesterday was my birthday. I like my birthdays and 33 doesn't sound so devastatingly old either.  Anyway, the day was good. Had a bit of quiet time and then played with the boys, went for a walk around the park and finally spent the night with the Mackay Deaf Club's 30th anniversary dinner celebration. It wasn't my first choice for a night out but it certainly was good to see some of the deaf community.

Ironically, we won the free raffle prize of a nice silver serving tray, 6 wine flutes and a bottle of white wine. Ironic because we were probably the only people in the room that didn't drink. We sat with the other 'hearies' and the photographer and her partner. The guest list extended from Townsville down to Brisbane. There were about 65 folk there with wide range of ages and signing ability. Sharlene and I held our own pretty well I thought but we need to work on our vocabulary.

Old garden, new position

It's lovely just to hang around the house once in a  while. Today I just loitered and it felt great. I'm having such busy weeks that I absolutely want to stop when the weekend arrives. I've been finding some interesting things on youtube for Zem to watch. He loves watching cars going over jumps and bumps. I'ver grabbed down some rally car footage.

Originally, I was planning to go with my father in law and raid some bee hives but the day started overcast and we didn't end up going. We did get our old raised garden bed though. A lot of the good soil we had has been used at the old place to fill some of the holes and divots. So, we're starting again with the soil. It won't be so bad. We've grabbed some sheep and chicken manure, as well as some lucerne hay and some other garden soil. Tomorrow, Sharlene will be putting these on and planting some peas. Azariah it seems has come down with an ear infection. Yay. Well we'll see what tomorrow brings us.

A New Place to Live

We are really enjoying our new house. Only it isn't really a house. More of a unit.  In any case, we are enjoying it. We've actually thrilled at the challenge of throwing out all our resources. First making electronic copies of it all and then binning the piles of paper.  The boys have taken the transition really well and don't seem to be missing our old place much at all. Zemiel came with me last week to mow the lawns there and didn't seem to attached.

Zemiel has only been back a week after spending 5 days in Brisbane with tests and assessments galore. Azariah spent the week with me. I, in turn, farmed him out to friends and family. We had a great week, although our dog had decided to abandon us when he could.

Diesel hasn't taken the move well. On the second day he jumped the low fence and was off. We found him down the road and I bought an static correction collar and system. After setting it up, it has taken Diesel quite a while to get used to it. He got zapped and has been quite shy of it ever since. Although, one day while I was at work, he still jumped out getting zapped and all. He didn't want to come back either when I eventually found him. He's been living in the house more than out of it, just to get his equilibrium back.

Today, the church had a youth rally and so Sharlene went to the afternoon meetings and I kept Zem home. We ended up taking the dog for a walk to the nearby park. Zem rode a small little car toy that really is too small for him. We nearly got carried away with mozzies too, but we loved it. Zem is just amazed by big spiders and their webs. It is one of his best motivational thoughts at them moment. We found a huge one the other day and we took a photo. (coming soon).

Zekiah is now sitting up confidently and is getting very interactive. We've moved his cot into the boys room and it seems to be working so far.  I'll try to convince Sharlene to give a review of her Brisbane trip shortly. Suffice to say that there is both good and bad news.  More later.

Photos of the boys

Here are a few photos from the last weeks.

Zekiah

Azariah

Zemiel

And now... some incredibly rare photographs of all three boys actually getting along with each other.

Zekiah is now five months old. He has started eating rice cereal, and loves pear added to it. I guess that makes him a bit of a sweet tooth. He has just started to roll over from tummy to back and has recently had some restless nights with sore gums. Unless he is in a growth spurt, he generally sleeps through the night.

Zemiel and Azariah both love Zekiah. Zemiel has a special bond though and is so very gentle with him. One of Zemi's big joys is to hold Ki for a while, or have Ki lie on his tummy.

Answered Prayers

Hi everyone. Yes, it has been a while since I posted. No, we didn't get that house previously pictured. It was a bit of a sore point for a while and every time I pulled up the blog intending to write something, I couldn't bring myself to do it. So there it stayed. Suffice to say that the building inspection showed some issues that our finances couldn't rectify. Instead, we have spent the last six weeks looking for a new place to live and we finally found one. Well actually, we found two. One in Pleystowe and one in Andergrove. We put an offer on our favourite (Andergrove) yesterday and last night the agent rang and said that the owner's accepted. Hooray! We think that this is God's pick for us. We think this for a couple of reasons.

First: Two days ago, I was going to make an offer on the Pleystowe property and God 'lightning bolted' me - twice. I was dialling the number of the agent and I was praying: 'God, if you don't want me to ring, you need to do something major like crash my computer' - and the program I was working on suddenly flashed and gave up the ghost. Okay, I thought. perhaps a coincidence, but if Sally (my co-worker) walks into my office now, then I know something is up. Within 3 seconds, Sally walked into the office.

Second: We put in quite a low offer - about 30 000 dollars less than asked. About 20 past 7 in the evening, I said a prayer with the boys and then at 7:30, the agent rang and said that the contract was signed. I asked her what time the owners had said yes, and she said, 7:20. That's a testament to the power of prayer and I think a clear sign that God wants us to get this place. The agent later said that she really didn't think it would work and that, at best, the owners would need to think about it overnight. But God had other plans.

This morning I opened my Bible randomly to Psalm 38 (about the power of prayer) and hasn't our faith been refreshed by this experience! Praise God for his goodness.

White House

Yesterday we made an offer on a house here in Mackay and today it was accepted. All going well, we should be starting to move in the next few weeks. It is a small house, quite old, but with a big yard - space for gardens. Sharlene and I will have fun fixing it up. It is in a good position for access to the rest of Mackay - for Zem's schooling and for my own work. It is all very exciting and we are looking forward to the challenge of fitting our stuff into much smaller house than we have now. It is a good reason to cull our stuff (again). We are calling it the 'white house' to distinguish it from the 'new house' that the boys have called the house we have been enjoying for the last 6 months.

Some other interesting events have occurred recently relating to Zemiel. His reports have come through after Sharlene's trip to Brisbane. Some more details on these in the next post. Zemiel has been working on the iPad for the last few weeks and he has gotten a lot clearer with his speech. He has a long way to go yet though, and his social skills are still lacking. We have been toying with the idea of home schooling him as we really don't think he would cope in a classroom.

We'll have more on that as things develop also. Alright, it's been a big day. Time for bed.

Merry Christmas!

We left Mackay straight after work on Friday to drive to Bundy and arrived shortly after midnight and both of us so very tired. Sabbath started out alright and Bon's family and ours began to drive to Tin Can Bay to meet up with Trev and Roni. Just out of Maryborough the rain came and it stayed all the way to Tin Can. We met Trev on one of the most exposed parts of the entire coastline (although there was a decent shelter there). We decided to look further down the road for a better option. Fortunately we found one. We had a bit of lunch and shared gifts. The cousins had a great time playing together. Zemiel drank too much juice. Azariah ate too many green lychees and ended up landing the contents of his lunch on my shoes.
On Sunday, the boys great grandma and great-great grandma drove up from Gympie to see us. It took a while before the day got going. Bon and Lindon arrived after lunch and stayed a while. Azariah and Zemiel had unwrapped their gifts, so a hurried rewrapping and swift discipline was necessary. Great grandma brought her dog Sammy with her and so we let her play with Diesel. Zemiel and Azariah took turns throwing the ball using a long stick with a scoop on the end.
Grandma spent some time showing off her new Wii and suffered almost everyone to create an account.

Sickness...

We've had a couple of tough weeks. Sharlene has been quite ill with tonsillitis or strep throat or whatever it is that is causing her tongue to swell up and unable to swallow.  I've had ear infections and the boys have had conjunctivitis. My staff at work have also been sick which has been a bother.