Waiting...

It's late so I'll be brief. We moved in last Monday. We still have a fair bit to unpack but we are slowly whittling it down. Everything has been reasonably smooth sailing except for our phone line connection, which we've had no end of trouble with (hence no internet). Right now we are at Sharlene's parent's place for Australia Day. Hopefully the phone will be connected by this Friday, but I'm not holding my breath. Sharlene's parents also delivered some of their old cabinets last Sunday which has helped out our organisation immensely.

The rain has arrived and looks like it will be a wet week, but the rain is warm up here, the kind of rain you don't mind walking dog in. All the creeks are up and there was a lot of rain on the road as we drove down this afternoon. Sharlene is quite stressed out over work starting. She doesn't feel ready yet.

Zemmy and Az are beginning to settle down and realise that we aren't travelling any more. Diesel still hates us leaving the house. He cries when he knows we are leaving. If he can, he will jump in the car and look at me as if to say, "I don't care how short the trip is, I'm coming with you."

Bowen church was lovely to attend again, I think we genuinely shocked a few people. Sharlene is already booked up for playing the piano and I think Sharlene wants me to attend the 'mother's group'. *sigh*

Azariah is now eating (and loving) pumpkin as his solid food. We ordered an electric breast pump for Sharlene to express milk quickly at school. It came today, which is just in time for school. We have arranged to borrow a bicycle trailer, so I will have no more excuses to use the car.

Azariah has his checkup in Townsville next week. He seems to be going well. He is such a chatterbox! Zem loves his brother and enjoys showing off his toys. He has still got his addiction to sultanas and asks for them everytime he sits in the car.

We are missing our friends down south.

A new house

Since leaving Morisset, we made the trip to Mackay in 25 hours. We have spent the last week with Sharlene's parents and brothers and sister. We saw our new house last Wednesday afternoon and we sign the lease tomorrow. We also have our gear arriving tomorrow (about 40 minutes after we sign the lease). We have been looking around town for second hand furniture to replace the things that we sold or gave away before we left. The house we are going to is an old queenslander. It has many small rooms but no build in robes. The garden is a bit of a mess, but it does have two mango trees. Underneath, there is heaps of room for the boys to play and is quite cool. Sharlene starts work next Friday.

Moving Day

Okay, the last two weeks have been pretty crazy with rainy travel, teething babies, runny noses, packing, continuous cleaning, unending packing, sorting, washing and packing. If not for all the help we've received from our friends and family, I think it would not have been done on time or remotely as well. A HUGE thank you to everyone. We love you! We are going to miss you a lot. We do have pictures of the last few weeks but will put them up when we are back on line. (Which may be in 2 or 3 weeks). Until then, we wish you God's blessings.

Christmas 2009

We all loved Christmas this year. Initially we had a quiet morning at home and opened our own prezzies and then went over to the Rigby's place for lunch. We shared the afternoon with the Rigby, Gibbs and Blyde families. Diesel also had great company with Boston and Sam. There was sooo much good food and the company couldn't be faulted. Each Christmas is getting better and better, just for watching Zemiel get excited about unwrapping his presents. He takes such meticulous care in tearing the paper - little piece by little piece. The suspense keeps everyone smiling. Azariah, on the other hand, believes in dissolving the wrapping paper before bathing the new item in his saliva. Both boys have been so well behaved over the last two days, Sharlene and I are very impressed and proud of them.
Diesel got a present from Roger and Astro next door...

Zem opening up his first present of the day.

Azariah enticing his present wrapping to give up and fall off on its own.

Sharlene is very appreciative of this thoughtful gift...

Our loot for the morning.

Mums and bubs.

At the Rigby's, Zem takes a brief rest...

Grand dad Glynn and baby Leia.

Four generations of girls.

More photos...

Still more photos....

Yet still more photos.....

Yet still more photos still...... (This one is special though)

Still yet more still photos.......still.......

Still smiling yet after all those still photos.........

All together now, lets have the grand finale of still photos yet again still, still, still photo.

Our small families....

Blydes unite!

Christmas Eve '09

It has been another big day. This morning we rested after moving furniture until almost midnight last night and taking photos so that someone might be interested in renting our house.

We took it pretty easy this morning. Sharlene got her Christmas present early today, by going to a day spa down at Tuggerah. I took the boys shopping and generally had fun around the shopping centre. In the afternoon, Chloe and Sharnaye came over and straightened Sharlene's hair.

Sharlene was asked to play Mary in our church's Christmas program this evening. She was a bit worried over learning her script, but in the end she did a great job. It was a well constructed program and also didn't go too late. And now, it's time for a sleep before the excitement of ripping wrapping paper tomorrow.

Nearly there

The last few days have been quite exhausting really. I guess, with Sharlene and I both being teachers we end up hoarding stuff... so cleaning up about 6 years worth of junk - sifting, sorting, binning, and then packing the remnant is something that I don't want to repeat any time soon. Having said that, our house looks fantastic again.

Sorry no photos - too tired.

2 more sleeps until Christmas morn.

Sharnaye's Dancing

On Sabbath we took the boys to Sabbath School and Church. We'd both missed it last week we were looking forward to it. Zem however, had different plans and began to leak fluid from his right ear. He had a middle ear infection and with all the business of the past 10 days, we didn't notice until now. So off to the doctor we went. He is now on antibiotics for 30 days.
Brendan, Anya, Kyan and Aliya Wotherspoon.

Brad and Nicholas Hawkes.

Kim, Leigh and Jessica Twine.

Jessica Twine and Isabella Johnson.

In the afternoon, we went to the Morisset show grounds to see Sharnaye do a dance recital. There were also some other dancing performances by various dancing schools. It was part of a larger christmas program. We didn't stay until the evening fireworks as the boys hadn't slept and were getting a bit unsettled. But they did get a turn in a fire truck. Azariah seemed particularly impressed. He is almost back to normal now.
Here's Sharnaye showing what she can do.

Step in time...

Safety in numbers?

Azariah seemed very interested in what was happening.

Looking on...

The 'rocket' pose.

This girl did an amazing solo performance.

And she did it with a broken toe!

Azariah (and Chloe) with his first fire truck experience.

Big things yet to come from this young man!

Azariah is becoming famous for his huge grins.

All Zem needs is some longer legs!

Now, how do I turn this thing on...?

Yesterday we went shopping for Christmas presents with Adrian, and began to put some serious effort into packing the house. We've given ourselves 4 days to do it.

Today we continued packing the lounge and kitchen. Shelly came over and helped, which was fantastic. We have 2 more days to go and we're not sure if we will have enough boxes. Only time will tell.

Azariah Returns Home

Azariah has recovered well so far and has been allowed to return home today instead of tomorrow. We ended up getting caught on the freeway behind an accident where a caravan completely overturned onto its roof. We were held up for about 3 hours before we finally got through.

Now it is time for Sabbath...time for a rest. Heaven knows I/we need one.

Recovery

Azariah's doctors are very impressed with his recovery rate. They are even more surprised with how high his pain threshold is. Sharlene said that this morning (Thursday) Azariah had only had panadol after his initial morphine and was not even complaining about discomfort. One doctor found it hard to believe. He may be released tomorrow if he is going well still. (Fingers crossed).

Today we also had our last session with Tracey at the RIDBC. Zem was pretty tired for the session (he is still a bit ill). Tracey has been a fantastic support this year. We're going to miss our regular check ups with her. I think Zem has really enjoyed her lessons also. Currently we are working on word suffixes like s, ed, ing etc. We also did some counting and colours today. Zem loves counting things. We also need to work on giving Zem directions to do unfamiliar tasks with familiar objects. An example would be: "Put the shoe on the computer."

Another thing Zem is really into right now is spiders. (Most likely because we haven't de-cobwebbed the house for a while). But everywhere he goes, he now looks for spiders on the ceiling. He still hasn't got the 'b' or 'p' sound happening yet, so he says it like this: "s-ider". So cute! 

Zem's favourite things at the moment: 

5. His ride and learn 4-wheeled bike.

4. His bead maze.

3. A small blue matchbox car.

2. His small Percy train that used to be a bath toy but is now an everywhere toy.

And his number one bestest favourite thing... (drum roll please)

1. His pull string fish (ishy) from uncle Trev and auntie Roni. 

Operation Day

First of all, I want to send out a HUGE 'Thank you' to everyone who has brought Azariah, Sharlene, Zemiel and myself before God over the last week - even though everything isn't over yet.
Sharlene and Azariah before surgery.

My last staff function was today. It was a staff breakfast at the Gosford Japanese Gardens. All of us who were leaving were prayed for. I handed in my key, and said good bye to everyone.  The brekky was fantastic! Afterwards, I intended to drive to Sydney post haste, but as I was driving out of the carpark I noticed the car wanting to pull to the right. Diagnosis? A flat tyre! Just what I didn't need. I wasn't sure when Azariah was going in for his op. After putting on the spare, driving around for a tyre centre, waiting for the tyre centre to patch up my flat, and getting back on the road, I had only lost about an hour. Praise God!  I still managed to get to Sydney before the operation.

Well that was today. Azariah has now had his laparoscopic surgery and it was successful. Contingency plans to do additional incisions weren't needed and Azariah has now got three neat little scars on his tummy to show that his gall bladder is now gone.

Inside the gall bladder, the surgeon found 3 more stones floating and about 17 more clinging to the walls that the ultrasound did not pick up. Azariah had passed the 4th stone and it wasn't playing pinball like a ball bearing like the surgeon feared. The tube leading out of the gall bladder had also been enlarged, which means that anytime the stones decided to go wandering and play havoc with his system, they could do so easily. (And if they've done it once it is likely they would do it again).

The operation lasted about 3 hours with an additional hour and a half in recovery before returning to the ward. Even then, Azariah was still sleeping off the anesthetic when I left. He is on a 'morphine cocktail' to combat the pain for the next little while.

Here's hoping that Sharlene will be able to get some decent sleep tonight, although Azzy will be quite hungry when he wakes up.

So peaceful.

Azariah's scars.

A closer look.