MWNews 23

Maeghan went to the doctors last week. It was one of her apparently bi-yearly checkups. They don't want to see her again until March. Which means they are not planning on doing anymore scans or anything. I am not sure I am happy with that but they are really pleased with how she is doing. I didn't get to go but Juanita said the doctors were all pleased with her and said she was doing really well. Juanita said her doctor was looking really old but I didn't see her so she might just have been having a bad day. We haven't seen the doctor in six months but Juanita said she had changed a lot.

I don't know what other doctors she might have seen while she was there but there were no bad reports. She is getting bigger, slowly, and they didn't see a problem with that. I wanted to ask them is she will ever get to 'normal' size. We know she will always be small but they have never said how small. I am guessing they don't know and I suppose it doesn't really matter. She is perfect the way she is now but we know she can't stay that size forever.

We have noticed she is doing a lot of things now that she could not before. I think it is from watching Jarvis climbing and doing reckless things. He will climb up on and jump off of anything and will do a lot of things that will scare us but are just normal for him. Maeghan has started climbing on things now that she would not even try before. In one way it is good, because she is more confident and she can do more things by herself but it is sometimes scary when she takes chances she should not and I miss having to do everything for her. She can climb up on the couch by herself now and will climb over things in the playgyms all by herself.

Yesterday, she scared herself on the slide at the mall. She was sliding down and caught one foot on the side and then caught her arm on the other side so she kind of spun around. It is all covered by netting, so the kids to not fall out but she hurt her arm and wouldn't go down the slide anymore after that. She will probably be over it by the time we go again, but she would just climb around inside after that. She wouldn't even take a last time slide when we were ready to go.

She has started to become really independent now. She is not listening to what you tell her to do. Typical of all kids but she is just starting to do it. She has started to eat a lot lately and she tells us she does not like her bottle anymore. We don't want to give her juice but she likes water so she will drink that. At night, she still has a bottle although she says she doesn't like it but if you leave it with her, she will drink it during the night. She has been sleeping most of the night lately. Everyone has the flu over here and she will wake up during the night if she cannot breath right. She insists she has to sleep on her pillow, so if you just put her back on her pillow she will go back to sleep. We put the vicks on her when she cannot breath through her nose and she will say thank you in her sleep. She is really cute when she says thank you.

She is being shy lately. Kaz and John, Juanita's friends from Brisbane, came by the other day. They were on a road trip and stopped in for a few hours. Maeghan would not go anywhere near them. She would get really quiet and hide behind me or go outside so she didn't have to go near them. Maeghan loves playing outside. We don't really have a place for her to play, the side of the house is all gravel and the back yard slopes towards a dropoff, so she has to be careful all the time. But she loves playing out there. She always wants the other kids to go outside and play with her. Usually, Leslie is the only one who will go out and he is only two also. I am not sure about just having them out there by themselves. It is ok if they play by the back door in the gravel, that is where Maeghan's slide is, but if they go out to the back, then no one can see them and I generally insist that someone goes out and watches them.

Leslie can climb up on the horse swing on the backyard gym set. It is way too high for Maeghan to do it but he has seen Jarvis do it and will copy him. He can't get down by himself, or he can't if anyone is out there with him. If no one is looking, he will climb down by himself but if he can see someone who will help, he cries out for them.

Juanita turned out to have diabetes, or at least the pregnancy kind. We will not know if she has it for real until after the baby is born. Hopefully not, but we go next week to have them tell us what she has to do. Probably just diet but if that doesn't work, then they will try something else. She has to learn to take her blood samples and check them. Her mother has to do that, so she should know how.

She is also going for another ultrasound for William. I think this is just the normal one but she has to go each week from now on. Not for ultra-sound but to the diabetes doctor.

I have an appointment for an angiogram. It is Oct. 25. I think I already told you that but just in case, that is when it is. I get to be off work for a week. The other angiograms, I was always already in the hospital, so I don't know if I was restricted or not. This time, it is outpatient surgery, so they will send me home. I am told I cannot drive or go to work for a week, so I have to stay at home and not work. Over here, if the doctor tells you you have to stay home, then your work has to let you stay home and not work. In the states, they cannot really enforce that but over here, it is some kind of law or something and if your work insists you have to work, then you can sue them or something.

I am supposed to go back to the doctor but I don't remember if he said in a month or a month after the operation. I will have to call him to check. He said there was a possibility they would keep me and do an operation but he said that was not very likely. Since this is a public doctor and hospital, they will probably just try medication if they find anything.

Michael has turned 17. He says he is not going back to school. He finishes the 11th grade this week. As you know, over here, they do not have to go to the 11th or 12th grade. We told him he has to get a job and soon. I don't know what kind of job he can get but I guess we will see. I have found out only about 20% of the population attends year 11 and 12. I am not sure how that is possible, but that is what they do over here. Michael has that apprenticeship thing he might be able to start in December but that is kind of iffy and I do not know if they have the same opportunities if they are not in school.

It is a little too late for Michael, but I will make sure not going to school will not be an option for Maeghan and William. Hopefully, by then the laws will have changed but even if they do not, I am not going to give them that option. Of course, in reality, there is nothing a parent can do about it other than kick them out of the house and that is not an option but I will try to make sure they understand the importance of it. I am not sure how to do that but I suppose that if kids were given this option in America, they would take it and not go to school either. If you do try to kick the kids out of the house for not going to school, the government pays them money to live on their own, so that is seen as an attractive option for the kids. They get paid for doing nothing. They don't realize that the money they get does not cover living expenses until it is too late but that is the system they have over here.

I did read that the average age of kids living at home has gone up in Australia over the past ten years. Ten years ago, it was 17.5 and then the kids would move out. Now it is 22.5 before the kids move out and a lot of them move back in when they are 27 or 28. Not something I am looking forward to but those are the averages according to some magazine over here.

On other notes, I did get Skype for my computer. I don't have a microphone but we will get one next week. I have an old one but it does not appear to work. For now, it is just computer to computer but I am going to try the computer to land line option also to see what it costs. Over here, there are several companies pushing the VoIP options. That is voice over IP for those you don't know and since that does not make any more sense if you don't know what VoIP is, it is a little box that you connect your phone and your computer to that uses the internet to make phone calls. I don't know if it will be any cheaper but we might do that at some point. The problem is the computer connection as it is more expensive to use theirs than the one we have but the phone calls are cheaper.

We will try Skype first and see what it is like. Several of the people here are work say they have it but they don't use it anymore. They are doing a trial over here with using the power lines for internet and phone connections. It is only in Tasmania right now, but it is apparently the first major conversion to take place in the world. It is only a trail right now but the speeds they are testing are much faster than what we have over the phone lines. The cost is more for the computer but the phone calls are free. I was going to look into it for Juanita's parents but it is not in their area yet. It will be next year. The only major drawback right now is that if you lose power, you lose your phone line, so you cannot call out but since most people use cell phones anyway, it will completely replace your need for a telephone line. That is a savings right there as you have to pay 30$ a month over here just to have your phone line connected and that is without making any calls.

This has gotten rather long this time and I have to work or eat lunch or go the mall or something right now. I will add some more later. I do have a few new pictures, so as soon as I download them from the camera, I will use them.

Talk to you later.

MWNews 22

Maeghan goes to the doctor today. We thought it was next month but it turns out it is today. It is just her checkup. I have to go to work but Juanita is going to take her. I want her to ask if they can do another MRI or some kind of scan. Not that we see any problems, but I would rather they check now instead of waiting for something to appear to be wrong. With the subtle changes that can take place, we might not notice it because we will see it everyday, so I would rather have them do some type of scan to see if they can see anything that needs to be taken care of now.

They told us after her operation that she would not need anything else, but she is still really small. That is probably how it is going to be but I want them to check as often as possible to make sure.

Everyone comments about how much better she is at walking and things. I know she doesn't fall as much but she still falls a lot. She can't really run yet. I don't know if that is because of the braces or she just doesn't have the strength in the legs to do it. She appears to walk on her toes a lot. I don't know if it just looks that way in that her braces are moving in her shoes and it looks like she is on her toes or she is actually walking on her toes. I guess they can tell us that today and indicate if there is any problems they see.

One issue is the clinic she goes to is for spina-bifida, and she does not have that. They at first classified her as having it but now they say it is just some other things that has a really long name. It is not spina-bifida, so the tests and things they look for may not be valid for her condition. I am sure it is basically the same thing and as long as the same doctors see her each time, they know what is going on. I just worry that if her doctors ever change, they will not know her history and will not look for the right things. But I am sure it is just me worrying too much.

Maeghan has started doing some new dances. Once again, we have no idea where she gets them from. Now, she will stand there and do something like the twist. She holds her hands up and twists her hips and then steps side to side.

She has also started singing a lot. And singing really loud. I think I mentioned it before. She has gotten to the stage where she talks all the time and is always asking questions and telling you what she is doing.

She has started potty training. She has been doing it off and on for about a year now, but now we are getting serious about it as we don't want two babies in diapers at the same time. She thinks it is really cool to go in her potty. When we leave her nappy off, she is going to the potty about every 15 minutes, whether she needs to or not. She has learned how to take her shoes and braces off and then take her pants off, so she does it on her own. She can't put them back on herself, so she runs around with no clothes on. We have bought her some little panties and she knows how to take them off. Sometimes, she doesn't get them all the way off and she gets them wet, so now, as soon as she takes them off, even if you have just put them on her, she takes them to the laundry. So all her panties end up in the laundry after about an hour. They are in a drawer she can reach, so she goes in and gets some new ones when we tell her to put her pants back on. Since they are all white, we don't notice that she brings us a new pair each time and then she runs out and we have to go find them in the laundry.

In other news, next week is Michael's birthday. I think it is Tuesday. He is out of school starting next week also. It is spring break I think. He has been taking tests this week, so I assume he is out next week. I don't really know as I still think it is fall here and spring break is in March. He went for a sort of job interview a few weeks ago. It is for the apprenticeship programs they have over here. He was going to be an electricians apprentice. Its a pretty good program in that once they are through their trial period of three months, they are offered a permanent job. And, they get paid for the time they are on trial. The government pays for most of it so it encourages kids to get started in jobs and allows new people to be trained. That is the reason most people don't finish school over here and grades 11 and 12 are optional. If they get into the apprenticeship program, there is really no reason to go to school anymore as they are set with a job for life. Of course, if that is not what they want to do, they have nothing to fall back on but they have been doing it here for a long time. I think the concept comes from England. If they ever do lose their job, then they don't have a whole lot of options as every other company is doing the same things with apprentices. But we will see how it goes. The job was between three different kids and only one of them can work at a time. Michael's trial period doesn't start until December I think. Of course, I may have all this information wrong and it works in a completely different way but I am sure it is something like I have described.

I was mentioning it was Michael's birthday. He will be 17. We bought him a new desk for his room and made him carry it in from the car and put it together himself. We got him something else, but he doesn't know that and he doesn't read this, so he won't find out. For now, he only knows he is getting the desk and that is all he is getting. You would think he might have figured it out since he carried in some wrapping paper and the desk wasn't wrapped, so he should have wondered what the wrapping paper was for. But apparently, he didn't.

I mentioned Juanita's parents and her sister are coming for Christmas. The get here on December 17. Right now, Angela and the kids are planning on spending a week in Brisbane at Christmas, but unless they buy the tickets soon, they will be spending it here also. Plus, I don't know where she is going to get the money from anyway.

Natalie and Adam were not planning on coming down. That might change since everyone else will be here, they might come down and see them. I know Natalie hasn't seen Poss in about 4 years of so, maybe longer. There is a small possibility we might go up there for a week, but I have no idea how we would fit everyone in the car and we are not going to take two cars. Plus, I won't have the time off anyway as I am taking it for the baby but we will see how it goes. Don't tell Juanita, I don't want her to get her hopes up. We won't have the money to take everyone anyway but if we can somehow arrange to leave Michael and Angela and the kids here, we might be able to do it. That way, it would only be Juanita, Poss, Juanita's parents, Maeghan, William and me in the car. We would all fit that way, but it may not be comfortable for a 12 hours trip, each way. And, there is no way we will be able to get away without taking everyone. Maybe Michael will be working by then and he will have to stay or he can pay to go up there himself. Angela and the kids are another story but will just wait and see. The trip is not likely to happen but I am thinking about it. Juanita wants to go before the baby is born but I can't take anymore time off before that.

We finally got ahold of the doctor about my procedure. They called the hospital and the hospital said they had lost the paper work. So we had to do it all again. I now have a date. I think it is Oct. 25. It is only a day procedure, so I won't be staying in the hospital. Of course, I already knew that but they are telling me I have to take a week off work afterwards. I haven't had do to that before but I will probably do it this time. Over here, if they tell you to be off work, then you have to be off work as everything is paid for by the government and if you don't do it the way they say to, they don't pay for it.

It's just an angiogram but since I had already done the blood tests and other stuff anticipating a date in September, I have to do all that again for the October date. It is not a big deal but it means I have to take a day off work for that.

Well, I am at home now. I have to go to work and Juanita has to take Maeghan to the doctor. I will write again after we hear from the doctor.

Talk to you later.

This is a picture a some of Juanita's family. They all have to wear blue in Tasmania, it is some kind of law. Starting on the left, there is Juanita's brother Craig, her father, her mother and Tim. In front are Craig's kids, Chris and Tommy. This was when we were in Tasmania last time.

MWNews 21

Maeghan asked me to take her to bed last night. She always does that, so it was no suprise. I was laying on the couch, so I asked her to carry me. She said she can't. I asked her why, expecting her normal answer of 'cause. This time she said. 'I can't 'cause I am a baby.'

If it gets an cuter around here, we might have to sell tickets.

She was also doing a really funny thing about William. It doesn't really translate into telling it, it is one of those things you had to be here for. I would try to do it justice, but there is really no way unless you see her so you will just have to accept it was really funny. Of course, she noticed we were laughing about it so, she kept doing it all night.

She has also almost learned all the words to twinkle, twinkle little star. She sings it on her own now. Most songs, she will ask you to sing and she will sing along, but for some reason this one she will just start singing all on her own. She does it while walking around in the mall, and she does it really loud. It is just another thing that makes people point and stare at her.

They changed the date of Williams birthday. It is now Dec. 5. They had told us sometime between Nov. 22 and Nov. 29, with the most likely date of Nov. 25. We had a different doctor this time and she said that was too early and went ahead and booked us in for Dec. 5. Since we are having ceserean, the date if pretty well set, unless she goes into labor beforehand. I had already arranged my vacation for the Nov. 25 date, but I am not going to change it. I will probably need that week to get ready for everything.

I still haven't heard from the hospital about my angiogram. The doctor said to ring him back if I had not heard from them in three weeks. When I have tried to ring the doctor back, no one answers. Have I mentioned how much I dislike the medical system over here. It's probably my fault as I should have private insurance, but even private insurance will not cover me for a whole year after I start coverage, which means I will have to pay for it for a year before they will pay for anything and even then, they will not cover everything, so I have left it as public coverage. I have to pay a 1.5 percent penalty each year for not having private but if you get free hospital coverage, it is worth it. It is just the wait for procedures that bugs me and everyone else but no one seems to want to do anything about it.

Juanita has to go for more tests next week. She is borderline for diabetes. They say it is sometimes normal for pregnant women but with her family history, they want to do more tests. She is just borderline at this point and they say they are not worried about it, that the test are just routine, but we will find out for sure next week.

I have to go cook dinner now, so I will keep this one short. I went back through some of the latest entries and saw that they were really long. Not that it is a problem but they seem kind of excessive. I could break those up into seperate posts and have more entries. You might also have noticed that I changed the archive to once a month instead of once a week. Not that it matters when reading the messages as it keeps the last seven entries active but it might make it easier to go back through archives. I have no idea how long archives are kept but I read other people's blogs and they have entries for several years back, so I guess I don't have to worry about backing it up. I'm not sure if there is a size limit. With me posting pictures each time, it would seem like it would get really large and cost me something to keep it, but so far, I haven't hears anything.

I am making baked chicken wings tonight, with corn on the cob and mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts, although I might not make the brussel sprouts. On another food note, I found some spaghetti sauce that has some repectable heat. It isn't that good of a spagetti sauce but it is hot enough that I don't have to add anything. It is at a store over here called Aldi's. I don't know if you have those over there yet, it is a German company apparently. It is a discount store where they make special buys of things and sell them much cheaper than a normal grocery store. They have a lot of other things there too, like this computer I am typing this on. Lots of other stuff, too. I mention it because it was strange to find somthing like this at Aldi's. I don't know how long they will have it. Like I said, they make special buys and sometimes don't have a regular supply of things. They change brands when they find something cheeper, so you neve know what you will find. Hopefully, I can get some more of this next week. They have another style that is based on olives. I haven't tried that one yet. I think it might taste better and if it does, I will combine the two sauces and have my own spagetti sauce.

Now you might ask why I am using canned or jar spagetti sauce. It is because when I make spagetti, I have to make at least two different sauces and sometimes three different ones. And since there are only three of us here, each person gets their own sauce. So I got tired of doing them all from scratch and will use the canned stuff as a base for whatever I add. Michael likes sausage in his, or mince, whichever I have. Juanita likes shrimp in hers. I like mine hot and with no meat. Juanita will eat the one with mince in it, so if I don't have any shrimp, she will eat that one. Maeghan will eat anything with noodles in it, as long as there is nothing but tomato sauce on it.

Another reason it is important to find a sauce that is hot is that I am almost out of my Dave's insanity sauce. I bought one jar when I was over there the last time and it has lasted until now. Since I cannot get fresh peppers all the time, it helps if the sauce is already hot.

Now that I have typed some meaningless stuff after I said I was going to keep it short, I will really sign off now. The chicken has been in for an hour and I have to make the potatos.

Talk to you next time.

MWNews 20

Yesterday was fathers day here in Australia. We were supposed to go for a picnic but it was raining. It hasn't rained here in about two months but it was raining yesterday when we wanted to go out. We went to the mall instead and let the kids play on the indoor playground. Maeghan loves the playground there, although there are sometimes a lot of kids playing. She is getting better about playing with them and around them. She used to just stand at the side and wait for them to move or get out of her way. Now, she will climb up there with them and just let them pass when they push through.

There is this big climbing, crawling thing she likes to go through. When she is in there, we can't get inside to reach her but it is all mesh around the sides, so we can stick our fingers through and help her get through the rough spots. There are a couple of places where they have to climb a little hill that is made of mesh webbing. She has to wear her shoes, because of her braces, and it is hard for her to get a foothold to climb with. The other kids just stick their foot and toes in the holes and climb that way. She has to hold on to the sides and pull herself up. Then swing her leg over the top and slide down the other side. She always wants me to help her at first, so I put my fingers through so she can stand on them and get a grip to climb. After a while, she can do it by herself and just goes through all the time. The other kids are always faster than she is so they push on by her. She will patiently wait until they pass and then continue on.

At the end of the tunnel thing, there is a slide. She has goatee really brave at slides. She doesn't want any help and will sit at the top and say Ready, Set, and Go and slide down. It doesn't really matter how tall the slide is, if she can get to the top of it, she will slide down by herself. She loves the slide.

At another mall, they have outdoor play areas. Most of them have the same type of setup, in that they have this little tower that the kids have to climb a ladder or climb some rope steps to get to the top. She can't do either of those, although she will try, so I have to pick her up and put her on top of the tower. She then goes over to the slide and slides down. When she gets to the bottom, she says again and runs over to the ladder to climb back up. We spend 15 or twenty minutes just doing that over and over again.

When is gets time to leave, we tell her we are going and she says just a minute, and tries to climb up again. If I try to pick her up, she says one more time or just once more and we give her another go. She is usually satisfied with this and only goes one more time. Sometimes, she says she is not finished yet and if she is really tired, she will cry and carry on like other kids but most of the time, she is happy with one more time.

Whenever we get to the shopping mall, when I get her out of the car, the first thing she says is she doesn't want to ride in the trolley, she wants to walk. It makes it slow going, as she likes to stop and play and investigate things as she is walking. If she is tired, she will ask me to pick her up and carry her. If I get too tired, she will eventually ride in the trolley, but she doesn't like it. She used to like riding but I guess the novelty has worn off. When she is with Mommy, she always rides in the trolley. I guess it is just Daddy being there when she knows she can get away with walking.

Saturday, we went for a drive. We haven't been for a while, so despite the price of petrol, we decided to go somewhere. We ended up not driving anywhere impressive, although, for a long stretch, we were driving on a narrow dirt road with about a hundred foot drop on one side and the side of a mountain on the other. We ended up there by accident. I wanted to reach a road where we could go someplace nice and I knew the road we were on eventually reached it. We just did not count on it turning into a mountain trail. There were a lot of pretty farms out there, in the valleys and on the sides of the hills, and some of them were for sale. Not that we could afford them, but it was pretty nice. We are still in the market for a house and maybe some land but we were still too close to Sydney and you can't get anything out there for less than half a million dollars, most of them for much, much more than that. Maybe someday, but for now, we will keep waiting for the house prices to fall.

When we eventually got to the road I was looking for, we had to drive about 30 miles to get to anything. We did pass the road I wanted to go down someday. If Momma remembers, we went for a drive one time to a ferry crossing with Juanita's parents. We went along this narrow dirt road to a little town where we had lunch. We then drove back a different way, along the river and eventually came back home, after crossing a couple of other ferries. That first ferry was Wiseman's ferry and the town we went to was St. Albans.

Not that anyone else has any idea what I am talking about, but the gist of the story is, if we had kept going through St. Albans, we would have continued along the river and eventually ended up on the road that we went on this past Saturday. We passed where the road to St. Albans comes out and I wanted to go back down it to have lunch there again, but I didn't know how far it was and they don't have a lot of signs telling you how far away things are, so we kept on going towards another town called Cessnock. On the way, you go through two historic towns that have little shops and tourist type things where you can buy locally made stuff. There are a lot of little towns like that over here. They are usually in the middle of nowhere and are not on the way to anything. I have no idea how these places stay in business or ever sell anything. There cannot be enough traffic on these roads to support them but everytime we go through one of these towns, it is full of people, so I guess that is something people do over here.

I love going to these places and finding new things. Juanita likes it too but not as much as I do. The problem is getting there. You have to drive for such a long time, that everyone is asleep by the time you get there and they are not as happy to be there when they wake up. It is fun for me probably because I have something to do along the way, drive, but everyone else just has to sit there.

Anyway, by the time we got to the first town, it was lunch time and the kids, we had Maeghan and Anna with us, were hungry but of course, they wanted McDonald's. Since we had driven so far with nothing for them to do, I decided not to stop and look at the shops and continue on to Cessnock, where they have a McDonald's. We never made it to the second town but maybe someday, we will take the trip again and stop and see the sites. I did see a couple of little cafe's and a couple of shops that sold homemade things. It is also in the wine country, so everywhere you went they had wine tasting. Not that Juanita could stop and have wine. Not only does she not like wine but she is pregnant and couldn't have any anyway.

So we ended up in Cessnock. It is a typical small town. A row of shops down the main street. A little shopping mall with a grocery store and a Target and other little shops nearby. We stopped at the McDonald's and let the kids play and eat lunch. I hate McDonald's but there wasn't anything else nearby, so we had to settle for it. The kids had fun and spent some time playing. Maeghan was naughty when we left and started crying because she didn't want to leave. We hadn't been gone for very long, the whole trip only took about four hours, but Juanita gets tired easily, with the pregnancy, so we decided to just drive home. We found some new ways to get home, we have made the drive to Cessnock before, so that made it interesting. We never got to see the water as we had headed inland. Everyone likes the water and we usually stay along the coast but this time, decided to go the other way.

Our next trip will be north, past Port Macquarie. I don't know what is up along that way. We do go that way when we go to Brisbane, but at that point, the trip is usually just started and we are not ready to do any site-seeing, so we bypass the roads closer to the water and just stay on the highway. Next time, we will get off the main road and drive to the coast on the other side of the Port. It is up near Taree for those following along on the map. We have been there once when we took a boat ride on Port Macquarie. We only visited one little town where the boat stopped for lunch but I am sure there are other things there to visit. This all depends on the price of petrol not going up again and our ability to save up for these drives. Petrol is at $1.30 now, but I have talked about that enough.

So, yesterday being Father's day, I got some presents. I got a tea set from Maeghan and Michael. I had been asking about one because we stop at some Tea houses sometimes and they serve tea the old fashioned way. Not tea bags but actually tea leaves in a pot. I think it is neat and Juanita decided to get me one for myself. Now, I can have real tea anytime I want. I don't know what occasion I will have to drink it or who I will drink it with, but I am ready when the time comes.

Angela and the kids got me a beard trimmer. I know you are not aware of it, but I have had a mustache and goatee for about six months now. Maybe not that long, but it has been a while. I don't know how much longer I will have it and there are no pictures of me with it, except on Juanita's phone, so I don't know if anyone will ever get to see it. I might make it until after Christmas, and get pictures then, but maybe not. Juanita's parents haven't seen it either and if I wait that long, then I might as wait until Christmas.

Maeghan used to play with it when I first grew it. She would rub my chin and look at me strange. I am worried that when I shave it off, she won't recognize me. I am also worried that William, if I have it when he is born, will not recognize me if I shave it off. That means I will have to keep it for a long time or shave it off before he is born. I haven't decided yet, but I will at least keep it until I get a decent picture.

I have tried to remember to take our camera with us when we go places lately. I keep forgetting and we do not have any new pictures of Maeghan or anyone else. Juanita wants me to take a picture of her belly so you can see what William looks like. I am not sure that is such a good idea but I will probably do that sometime.

William is still scheduled to be born on Nov. 25, Juanita's birthday. I think we go to the doctor again this week and as we get closer, they will tell us for sure when it is supposed to happen. Juanita's parents will not make it over in time. They have to stay and do some kind of church work with Karen, Juanita's sister. They will be here on Dec. 17, the day of Maeghan's dance recital. They get here at 08:30 in the morning and the recital is not until 6 pm, so we should make it back in time. I don't know how long they are staying, but the ticket prices do not go down until February, so they will be here at least that long. That is, if ticket prices go back down. They might keep them up because of the fuel price but for now, they start to drop in February. If they stay that long, they might as well stay for Maeghan's birthday. That is Feb. 21. Maeghan will like it, I am sure.

We are planning on getting her this big play house she always plays with at Toys R Us. We already have her Christmas presents, so we will get that for her birthday. It has a little make believe kitchen in it and windows and doors she can open and close. It is a really nice one. Most of the cheaper ones we see are very flimsy and with all the grandkids, we don't think they would hold up very well, so we plan on getting the good one. Maeghan always hates it when we have to leave the store. It is the one thing she always cries about when we leave. She likes to go in there and make us dinner. She mostly makes lollies, but sometimes she makes noodles or sausage. She has started doing that at home and feeding them to us. We got her this big wooden kitchen for Christmas. It has everything you need like a stove and cabinets and a refridgerator and other things. I have to put it together at Christmas and it weighs a ton. I think it will be too big for anywhere in the house and we will have to get rid of some things but we should probably get rid of some of her toys anyway. She plays with them all but one room of the house is dedicated to her toys and it is not her bedroom. It is the rumpus room and that is where all the kids play. The big kitchen is supposed to go in there but I don't know where it is going to fit. It can't go outside because it is made of wood and I don't like the kids playing in the garage because there is too much chance of them getting into something they are not supposed to get into.

Well, Maeghan goes to ballet today. I am sure I will have more to write about tomorrow. For now, I think it is time to go. I have lots of work to do. We will talk to you later.

Bye.