MWNews 65

Still don't have any pictures from the actual games we have been playing. I coach and Juanita keeps score, so no one is available to take the pictures. We will get some before the end of the year, though.
We had another game today, a few hours ago actually. I think we won this one but we can never really be sure. Juanita, I think, has got the hang of keeping score, so according to her scores, we won 21 to 18. I think the other scorer had the same thing, so we can say this was a win for us.
I told all the kids we tied again, which is what we told them from last time. I think they cornered Juanita and forced her to tell them we had won but they all seemed to have fun either way.
We have two extra players on our team, although one of them did not show up this week, and the other team only had eight players, so we had to lone them someone. I picked Jarvis although I knew he would be a problem. As I have said many times, he just does not pay attention and he never learns anything you tell him, so each time he had to come to bat, they had to show him how to hold the bat, where to stand and how to swing it. I think he got on twice out of the four times he batted, so he did ok once he was shown how to do it. He didn't manage to catch the ball in the field, although they did hit it to him several times. He always complains that they do not hit the ball to him and both times they did, he was not watching, so he did not catch it.
Maeghan got to bat four times and got on base twice. It takes her a very long time to run to first. The first time, she didn't run right away and she might have made it to first if she had. They threw the ball around to the other bases trying to get other people out and she just about made it before they realised that she was still running to first. The got her by a step but she had fun almost making it.
The next time, she hit the ball all the way back to the pitcher and got to running to first. The pitcher got confused and could have tagged her out, but they told him to throw the ball home, so he stopped trying to tag her and threw the ball home. The catcher just stood there with it and Maeghan ran all the way to first. Her first base hit and she was all smiles about it. Wish I could have got a picture of that.
The third time up, she got thrown out at first. Wasn't really close that time, she was just about half way, but she was tired by then and didn't mind sitting back down. On her last at bat, she again hit it to the pitcher and he ran in home to get someone out. But the runner on third did not have to run, so he went back to third and Maeghan had time to run all the way to first again. Her second base hit in the same game.
Both times she got on base, she had to run all the way to second, but they got the ball back in before she could get there, so she never made it past second base. Anna bats after Maeghan and is the last batter. We are only allowed to bat nine batters in any one inning, so all the runners are suppossed to keep running until they get the ball into home plate. Maeghan has very little chance of getting all the way home but maybe if I bet her higher in the order sometime or she gets to bat first and they let her get on. they will probably have to let her get to each base before she will have a chance to score, but maybe we can talk them into it. In the last game, they were going to let her get on, but the pitcher didn't throw the ball away like he was suppossed to, so she did not get a hit in that game.
Maeghan played pitcher for two innings and they hit the ball to her a couple of times. Some of the other players went and got the ball before she could get to it but she didn't really mind that. I think I have her playing 2B next week and they hit a lot of balls to there, so maybe she will get a chance to pick the ball up and throw it. She played 3B for a couple of innings, but they did not hit the ball to her.
Anna played left field and right field. I think they did hit the ball to her a couple of times and she threw one of them in to second base and the other into home. She might have gotten someone out at second if there had been anyone there when she threw it, but these are little kids and they rarely are in the right place to catch the ball.
William stayed home with Natalie. We still cannot take the chance of taking him with us as he will surely run out on the field or yell the whole time for me to come pick him up. Adn the flies are really bad out on that field. I had several fly into my mouth while I was out there. I don't ever remember flies in America as bad as they are in Australia. They are everywhere and they constantly buzz around you and never leave you alone. They do not shoe away either, they just move out of the way of your hand and come right back. It is possibly the worst thing I hate about Australia. Even in Tassie, where it is cold, they flies were bad in most places. Not as bad as they are in some places around here, but still pretty bad. It think the worst place we have seen them, if not on the basefield, is in Avoca Beach. We had planned on living there at one point, but whenever we have visited and had coffee or lunch there, the flies have been horrible, so I am not sure we will ever actually live there. But enough about flies.
I have gone back and re-read some of my previous blogs and they seem really, really long. So my plan is to write more often but not have as much in each message. I don't know if that will work, but eventually, you would expect me to run out of things to say.
Tomorrow is William's second birthday. I have to start cooking soon to get ready for it. I am not sure how I am going to cood the BBQ as the recipe I have calls for cooking it in a slow cooker, not on the smoker. I kind of think that is blasphemy but if you start a fire, even in the smoker, I am sure there will be fireman here in a very short time. I am probably going to try it, smoking for a couple of hours and then transferring it to the slow cooker. I think that might work and ease my sensibilities about BBQing in anything but a real smoker. We will see how it goes. I am also making sausages, but they do not need to be smoked, although, I might throw a few on to see how they go. Can't hurt as the sausages over here are really bad. I think they are what you would get in the UK, but they don't seem to have anything that resembles meat in them. I am not sure what they are made of, but it does not appear to be meat. Anyway, I might smoke a few just to see how it goes.
So, in my effot to keep these a little shorter, I will end this one now. I think I have to do some housework or something to get ready for the party. I will get back to this after the party tomorrow.
Until next time,
Talk to you later

MWNews 64

Meant to post right after Maeghan went to the doctor but have not had the time or inclination to do so. In a few moments, that will change. Wait for it. Ok, now I am ready.

And just as I start writing this I am annoyed at what the blog is doing. Once again, it is not typing like I am used to and I will have to remember to do things that it normally would do for me. But, I am sure you will never notice it, so lets continue.

Maeghan went to the doctor last week. She was going to get fitted for a wheel chair. Not that she really needs one, but they want to get the process started before she starts school. Which is in a little less than three months. It seems it could take up to six months to get the wheelchair approved for her. Of course, we could pay for it ourselves but as they cost around $4000 for the one she wants, I am thinking I will wait for the government to pay for it.

She had a choice of two different models. One of which is the old style. It is like all the other wheelchairs you would imagine except it is smaller. Not very pretty and not very practical for a child going to school. The other is a more modern racing model. I say racing but it is not actually for racing. It just looks like it is. It is very light weight and Maeghan can handle it all by herself. The wheels are angled in and the seat is specially designed to fit Maeghan. The brakes are easy for her to reach and are easy to put on.

The deal with the good one is that it costs about three times as much as the other one. It is specially measured and fitted for her and has a single handle in the back that is fitted to Juanita and I for the correct height. But, since it costs so much, they will have to have some justification for spending the money on the more expensive model. We had to basically tell them that Maeghan can only walk of be active for about 15 minutes at a time. That is sort of true but if she is having fun, she can go for as long as she wants. It is only when we are walking or just doing normal things that she says she is tired and wants to be carried or ride in the pram or something. She also has the feet problems, she sort of walks on her feet kind of rolled over. They had a specialist look at them during this visit and he said it was not that bad, but the other doctors have said and continue to say it is not normal and will need support. That was one of the reasons for the braces but since she has worn them in over a year, they have decided she may not need them anymore, or not until she puts on a little more weight.

Speaking of her weight, she is back under 12 kilos. For a brief time last year or about six months ago, she actually got over that weight. But, since she has been going to school and is more active, she has gone back under the 12 kilos. The doctors said she has gotten a little taller but has not put on any weight. They told us last time that she has had her growth spurt for her age group and will probably not grow very much until she gets to ten or eleven years old. Which means she will be very small going to school.

As you know, we have been concerned about that for some time. We do not know how the other kids will react nor how she will handle it. Several doctors or teachers have said they do not think it will be a problem. She seems to be very independent and tells the other kids when she does or does not like something they are doing, so maybe she will be ok. We will just have to wait and see.

Everyone still notices how small and cute she is. I don't remember if I told this or not, but she went to what is called a teddy bear picnic a few weeks ago. It was at the school and was supposed to introduce the new kids for next year to the school and the teachers. They basically played games and drew pictures. She had some trouble with some of the games and things they were doing but there were lots of teachers to help her. I don't know if that will be the case when she actually starts school, but they all seem to try to make it easier for her. One thing that is going to give her problems is the tables and chairs. They have smaller tables and chairs for the little kids, but they are still not small enough for her. I think we are supposed to supply a little stool or something for her to stand on and sit on so she can reach the top of the tables. She already has the stool but I don't know about something to sit on.

Anyway, at the picnic, they had lunch for the kids. They had sausages on the BBQ and they all lined up to get theirs. I went over with Maeghan to make sure they could see her and not overlook her standing there to get her lunch. It turned out that it was not a problem as several of the older girls, older in that they are probably in the fifth grade or so, had heard about Maeghan and I overheard several them asking 'Where is Maeghan, I want to see Maeghan'. When she was pointed out to them they did the usually thing of saying how cute she was and they all wanted to help her. If that is how it is going to be, then I am sure she will be well taken care of while she is in school.

Maeghan is all excited to be going. She only has a couple of weeks left before she is finished with pre-school. They have been teaching all the kids how to act during school and doing a lot of the same things they will encounter when they start. Maeghan also goes to Ready, Set, Go, which is another program to get kids ready for school. They have had orientation the last three weeks, but I think that is more for the parents than for the kids. But she is ready to go. She cannot read yet and some kids her age can already do that, but most cannot. She can recognize her numbers and once she knows what she is supposed to do, she can play the games they are playing. She is doing really well, I think.

I suppose I should talk about all the other kids and the other things that are going on. William, while still being a real terror, he is starting to learn that when he gets yelled at, he should probably stop what he is doing. Now, or the last few days, the good times are outweighing the bad times with him. He can still throw a real fit when he does not get what he wants and can be lots of trouble when we take him anywhere, but I think, in a very small degree, he is getting better.

Of course, replacing all those tantrums is him being really, really cute and since he is talking a little better, he is saying some of the funny things kids say when they are that small and just learning to talk. If you can keep him entertained, then he is a real delight to have around. We still cannot have a coffee without letting him run amok all around the place, but we have found a little place inside Starbucks where he can stay and not bother too many people. If Starbucks was just not so expensive for a cup of coffee, we might go there more often. Plus, they do not have loyalty cards where you get a free coffee or free treat after so many purchases, so we do not go there very often. We might have to start though.

It is Williams birthday on Sunday. Apparently, I am cooking for a whole bunch of people I did not know were coming over until the last minute, or until the last week. I think there are 15 people coming over, mostly adults, so I have to get my BBQ cleaned and restocked so I can cook for them. I am going to make sausages, BBQ pork and maybe some dirty rice. A few of the other people will be bringing salad, so I don't think I have to make anything in that area. I also have to make the cake and I am going to try a new recipe that I am planning for Natalie and Adam's wedding.

Yes, apparently I am cooking for that occasion also. I did not know it included making the wedding cake, so we will see how this practice goes and decide if I can actually make a wedding cake. I am not a baker, so it will be a first for me.

But, back to Williams birthday, he will be two on Sunday. He loves cars and trucks, so we have gotten some of those for him. I can't remember what else we have gotten, but with all these people coming over, I am sure he will have lots of presents.

Juanita's birthday is the following weekend. I am not planning the elaborate party she had last year. Not that I planned that one either, but this year, I think it will be just me and the kids. Maybe Natalie and Adam, but I want to see if they will take the kids for a while so we can go to a decent dinner somewhere. it will be our last chance to be alone before the family gets here so I am thinking we need to do something special.

The family starts arriving the next week, for Natalie and Adam's wedding. Lots of people, lots of them staying with us and some of them have no plans for leaving. They will leave eventually, but they do not have any set date at this point. I know air fares do not go back down after the Christmas over-charging, until February, so I expect them to be here until then. Not that it is a problem but it gets pretty crowded at times and there are not a lot of places to hide when things get testy. It doesn't happen very often, but you can only expect things like that to happen sometimes.

I don't know how I am going to feed all these people and transporting them around is not going to be easy. Two cars wherever we go, so we sill not be going on many long trips while they are here.

We are expecting Angela and are not sure how that is going to work itself out since this will be the first time she has seen her kids or we have seen her in about seven or eight months. I expect the worst from this encounter but am hoping it does not get too bad.

Juanita goes into the hospital on Dec. 11. She is expected to be there for several days. I have this strange feeling that this will be the time that Angela makes her bid to recover the children, while Juanita is not here to argue with her. I am hoping the rest of the family that will be here will help me out as I will be spending a lot of time in the hospital with Juanita and cannot be home to protect the kids from their mother. We are also expecting the father, but I do not see him as a problem as he says he is for the current arrangement. He might be saying one thing to us and another to Angela, but I still do not see him as a potential problem.

Enough of the family disputes. We have not had another baseball game as it has rained every time we have had one scheduled. We have been having practice and most of the kids turn up for that. I don't seem to be able to hold their interest for the entire time but they all want to be doing something and since only a few can actually be batting or catching or doing anything at a time, they tend to get bored and find their own games to play.

Maeghan has not gotten to the point where she can catch the ball yet but Jarvis and Anna have gotten better. That is, when Jarvis is actually paying attention to what is going on. He rarely seems to follow what we are doing and even when it is his turn, he ignores everything you tell him to do and does it all wrong. He did have to pay the price at one point when he was playing the infield and was not paying attention, as usual. Someone hit the ball at him and it hit him in the leg. I don't think it actually hurt him but he cried until someone paid attention to him and then he was ok after that.

I do have a couple of trouble makers on the team as they are better than the other kids and tend to run around doing everything at once while the others are trying to learn. I don't know if it made a difference to one of them but most of the kids think he is the best one on the team, I am not so sure as I think one of the girls might be as good as he is and one of the other boys is definitely better but not as popular. I gave the player of the week trophy to another kid after our first game and I think he might have expected to receive it himself. Maybe it means he will actually try harder but all it seems to have meant was that he runs around a lot and doesn't really pay attention unless he is the center of attention.

We are supposed to play again in the morning, our second game, and at the moment it does not appear to be any problems with rain. Lets hope we get to play.

I have to go fix dinner now. Maeghan wants spaghetti, but none of the other kids do, so I am not sure what I will be cooking. I'll report after the game or after Williams birthday on how things went.

Until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 63

I think Juanita has sent this picture around but I am including it in here. Shows just how big William is and how small Maeghan is. We are currently getting ready for school, so this will probably be a short message.

Maeghan has Ready, Set, Go today and school orientation after that, so she will be at big school all day. William is not going anywhere and hopefully can stay home and not have to be watched constantly. Juanita is not feeling well, so I will be taking the kids to school. I have to go to Maeghans pre-school to pay her fees. Only a few more weeks left until school is out and she will no longer go to pre-school.

And once again, this blogger has changed in that it is not entering a double line when I press enter, so I have to press enter twice. But I will muddle through as best I can.

William is in the other room calling out for something. I have no idea what. He makes a lot of noise and is generally not happy with the way things work. He thinks we should all wait on him and be ready whenever he calls. Kind of like me, but he tends to yell and scream when no one is paying attention to him. I, on the other hand, hardly ever yell and scream more than once or twice. He keeps up a constant tirade until someone pays attention.

He brought me an apple for me to take the first bite out of it. He cannot get them started with his own teeth but will eat the apple after you take a bite. He has only eaten one bite so far and the rest is sitting her on my desk. I suppose he will not be finishing this apple. He wasn't hungry as he had already breakfast but we were putting apples in the kids lunches and he wanted one.

I suppose I should be getting ready to go. I still have to take a shower and then get Maeghan ready to go. I have an hour before I have to leave but there might be a problem with getting Maeghan up. She tends to stay up later than she should, always making excuses for why she is up, but really just not wanting to go to sleep. She asks for cold water, as oppossed to the semi-cold water that she got when she went to bed. She then asks for something to eat, because she is hungry, but she is not really hungry she just wants to be up. Then there is the switching of the beds as she starts out in one bed, moves to sleep with Anna and then moves back to her bed when Anna takes her water. Sometimes, she makes one more move to our bed, but lately, that has not been happening.

William is always sleeping in our bed, or Juanita's bed as I cannot sleep with the kids in the bed. William sleeps in his bed until about midnight, and then comes in and wakes us up so he can get into bed. This happens almost every night. I have a single bed in my office and when William arrives, I move to teh office and sleep there. William will then call out to me for most of the night wanting a drink of me to pull the covers over him or just to generally keep me from sleeping. Juanita says he wakes her up all night long, but I don't think she knows how much he wakes up during the night as she is always asleep when he is calling out to me.

Maeghan has just gone off to have a shower, so I suppose I should be getting ready also. I think there were a few other things to talk about, but I have to get going, so,

Until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 62

The program is over. Maeghan may not have been the star of the show, but she was the star everytime she went on stage. Which was twice, or three times if you count the ending when everyone was on stage.
Her first time on, which didn't come until halfway through the show, she was a chicken, or a duck, or something that was suppossed to be a bird. I have no idea what they were dancing to, I was too busy trying to get her on camera. I have most of it, but about holfway through, I hit a wrong button and the picture went a little screwy. I spent the next few minutes trying to fix it. After watching the tape, it was not as bad as I thought it was, but there is a little gap where you cannot really tell what is going on.
I recorded the whole show, or most of it. I think I missed a couple of dances but you cannot tell on the tape. There was another friends daughter in a few of the dances and I felt obligated to film her and get closeups of her, so I ended up with most of the show on the tape. The battery did run out at the end, so I missed some of the last awards but Maeghan had already received her award, so I didn't miss anything important.
On her second dance, she was a cowgirl, as you can see in the picture. They were a little too close to the front of the stage, so they were not fully in the light and it was hard to film. A couple of times, they actually came off the stage and sat on the steps leading up to it. That part did not come out at all on the film and the pictures are really dark so I have to adjust them until they are unprintable. But it was ok, I got all the dance and a few closeups of her and she was smiling and laughing the whole time. She had a little part to play in this one as she was suppossed to act sad and start to cry while the dance was going on. They were dancing to the song 'you have a friend in me' from Toy Story. When they get to the part where it says you may be small and you may be something else, she pretends to cry and all the other dancers come over to comfort her. She did it pretty well, but the sound system in the theater was so loud, it was a school auditorium, you could just get the gist of the music and not really here the words.
This part, several people came over and told us they were going to cry she was so cute. I think I might have. At the end of the show, they were all on stage together and after she took her bows, she went back to the back and gave the big girl who was with her a high five. Probably not a lot of people noticed it but I have it on tape.
Anna was only on in the last number. She had not been with the class long enough to learn the dances, so was only on at the end. The show really centered around the big girls dancing. The did not do a ballet but did two hip hop type numbers, or whatever they were calling it and each was the longest numbers in the show. There was one group that did several numbers, with a little different group each time. I think I skipped a couple of theirs, so I did not get the whole show. The church wants to have a copy of my tape although I told them that there were a lot of closeups of Maeghan and Anna and this other friend and when they were not on stage, I did not really have the camera centered on the stage. But they did not tape it and apparently do not have any copy for themselves.
The reason the church wants it is the teacher, who dances with the big girls, is the pastors daughter. They had four daughters in the show, three in the big group and one younger one in the next highest group. Normally, the teacher wears her hair up and is really conservative, but for this, she was barely recognizable. She plays keyboard in church and is onstage most of the time, but if I had not seen her a few times away from class and church, I would not have recognized her.
William did not come to the show. As I have said, he has become a real terror. We did not think there was anyway to keep him still during the show so he stayed home with Adam. Natalie went to the show with us, along with Jarvis. I think some of William's new behaviour comes from Jarvis, but he appears to have enhanced on it quite a bit. We can no longer take him anywhere as he throws fits most of the time. You know those kids that scream and holler in the mall and carry on when they do not get their own way. You see them somtimes throwing themselves on the floor and refusing to move while they scream and holler. Well, William have become one of those kids. I know it happened a few times with Rachael, when she was little, and I had to take her out of wherever we were at the time to get her quiet, but William does not stop and the only option we seem to have is to not take him anywhere.
Right now, he is suppossed to be in bed but I can hear Juanita yelling at him because he is doing something he should not be doing and I can hear him laughing all the time, even when we are yelling at him. He just does not care about anything you say to him, he does what he wants and keeps doing it until you drag him away from whatever he is doing that he should not be. In the past week, we have taken him out twice and tried to sit down and have a coffee after we had finished what we were doing. Both times, he threw such a fit because he was sitting and when we let him out, he just ran around all the other people opening things and yelling, to the point where I did not get to finish my coffee and had to take him out to the car. I am not sure what we can do about it anymore. I sat him on the bottom sometimes to try to make him stop, he just gets louder, but I don't like to do that because if it has come to the point where I feel like swatting him on the bottom, I am usually very upset with him and I don't like doing it when I am upset. And I definitely do not like doing it in public, so my only option appears to be taking him away from that situation.
But, as we all know, it is the times when he is happy and playing that make it all worth while. He really is cute and now that he can talk most of the time, he says some really cute things. And his laugh, well it means we can never be upset with him for long and he generally gets away with anything he does.
On a side note, I seem to be making a lot of typing mistakes and I may not be catching them all, so once again, you are on your own in adding words or correcting spelling as you see the need. I have gone back several times and noticed I have left whole words out of some sentences, to the point where the sentences do not make sense. So if you get confused, do what I do, make up your own stories.
We had a bye on the last baseball game. We had a practice yesterday and while some of the kids are getting better, especially the younger ones, the older ones seem to be losing patience with the pace of the practices and are constantly asking to do things that we are not currently doing. Like bat when we are catching the ball and running the bases when we are batting and not catching the balls that are hit to them because they are busy playing with each other. jarvis is a hopeless cause as he does not seem to be able to concentrate for more than three minutes, if that long. And he does not even try to do anything right. Doesn't matter how many times you show him or help him or tell him what to do, he does whatever he feels like at the moment and we usually end up just ignoring him and moving on. That generally makes him sulk and he does nothing for five or six minutes. You can see where I suspect some influence on William. I am not sure what to do with Jarvis either. It is not fair to the other kids for me to constantly be paying attention to him, but without that, he gets in the way of the others and generally interrupts what we are trying to do. I suppose he will be better at some point. When, I do not know.
We play this week, if it stops raining. It has been raining for a week. I was called fifteen minutes before the games were suppossed to start last week to tell me that the games were cancelled. We had a bye but I am not sure what I was suppossed to have done about it as if we had been playing, I would have already been at the field. I told everyone that I would not get any notice if there was a rainout, but if I did, I would try to contact them.
In other news, Juanita went to the doctors today. She has been having her problems, for most of the last two years, and after they have tried several options, she is now scheduled to have a hysterectimy (no idea how to spell that) on Dec. 11. This is three days after Natalie's wedding and all her family will be here. They say she will be in for about four days but with her past history, I am not counting on it. I expect her to be there a week or so. I am on vacation at that time, so I can be there most of the time, but as I said, her family will be at our house and I do not trust them to be able to cook for themselves or take care of themselves. I know they do it all the time at their own homes and I suppose I have to let them do it here, but you know me, always have to be in control. I guess it will be ok but I now they will need to be allowed to drive one of the cars and the only one big enough is mine, so I will have to give it up to them while I am at the hospital. I hope my insurance covers it.
There was something else I was going to write about Juanita, but for some reason, I have forgotten what it was. I guess it will come back to me but maybe not.
I got bad news about my work today. It seems we are no longer viable as an option for the American company. In the past, we were considered 'offshored' for the American company, but since the Australian dollar is almost equal to the US dollar, it is no longer cheaper for them to send the work to us. That has actually been the case for some time, but now they have made an official statement about it and we are all expecting to lose our jobs sometime soon. Of course, our boss says that is not going to happen but when his boss was let go with no notification about a year ago, and never replaced, we are not sure he knows what is going on. We did hear that this former boss has just got a job, after being out of work for a year.
Juanita and I are really worried about it as there are not any jobs that pay as much as I make in other fields and no one is hiring for the skills I possess. I don't really have a choice about it but I have already started looking and there does not seem to be anything out there. I have a couple of options and hopefully, I can make use of them before they let us go, but I am not sure even those skills are marketable. I am told they are, but we will see. I need to complete a project and get certified really quickly but I seem to have an advantage in that I already have the training for the certification, I only need to complete a project. For those who might know what I am talking about, it is the Six Sigma certification, which means nothing to anyone, but to those that do know what it is, it appears to be very important. I will try to get that rolling as soon as I can Maybe there actually is a market for that.
I might be able to return to contracting in the server automation field, but they updated all those products in the past few years and I do not know if my knowledge is current anymore. By the way, I think my keyboard has started to act up again, maybe the batteries are dead once more because I am typing things and they are not appearing on the screen. I will attempt to muddle through, but I should probably bring this to a close soon.
If anyone is reading this in timely manner, pray for Juanita, and pray for William and pray for me. Maeghan goes to the doctor on Friday, so pray for her too. Its just a checkup, but they might be giving her a wheelchair at this visit. I don't think she needs one, but they might do it now since she is starting school soon so it will be easier if she does need it and they have to scramble to get all the okays after she starts school. In case you do not remember, she starts school at the end of January, next year. Less than three months away, but I have spoken about that before. William has been to kindergarten a couple of times, to try to prepare him for when he goes next year. He is going to be a problem, I think, as when I was there with him, he would start to call out and cry anytime he could not see me in the room. Juanita says he did the same thing with her when she took him. Hopefully, he will get over it, Maeghan never had that problem, but I don't think so. He is also a bully and does not get along with other kids, always pushing them around when he wants something. I guess this school is suppossed to get him used to being around kids his own age, but he does the same thing to all the other kids here, so I don't see him getting over it anytime soon.
I guess I should be going. I have other stuff to say, like I have lost some weight, down to just be obese and not morbidly obese, but that can wait until we see if I can actually lose more weight and keep it off. Juanita has also lost weight, but with her condition, she cannot really go on any diets that might affect her health. She has to take iron tablets now and she cannot be further weakened by having less food.
Ok, I had to change the batteries as it was really annoying me. Just in time to close this entry. I'll keep up with some of the things after Saturday, when we have another baseball game.
Until next time,
Talk to you later

MWNews 61

I would say that the picture thingy is broken again, but actually, I am at work and I do not have any new pictures to publis on this computer. I suppose I should download some on here so I can do that. Another thing is, this font looks funny as I am typing it and I am not sure this entry will look like any of the others. It seems kind of strange but there is no way to check it, so I will continue as if I don't notice.

William has become a real terror. I suppose it is the terrible twos as he is going to be two this month, but he has really become a handfull. With three other kids to watch, we have to take it in turns for someone to watch William all the time. It is not easy. He is constantly into everything and wanting things and climbing on things and climbing up to things he would normally not be able to reach. I am constantly telling him not to grab things off the kitchen counters but he never seems to remember he is not suppossed to do that. It doesn't matter what you say to him, he will do it as soon as you turn your back.

He has also developed the annoying habit of throwing a fit every time he cannot get his own way. Since he seldom gets his own way, that means there an almost constant fit in progress. He does the typical thing of screaming as load as he can, throwing himself on the ground and then looking for any other adult to hold him and tell him everything is alright. We are not sure if this is normal behaviour or he has picked it up and amplified it from the way the other kids act. They have a tendancy to whine anytime they do not get what they want and are in constant need of attention themselves. Not so much Maeghan, but the other two were apparently trained to whine and cry whenever they want something. If they could just learn to simply ask for something instead of whining about it, everything might go a little easier but they have this tone in their voice and this sad, almost crying look on their face that makes you just want to slap them all the way to their bedroom.

But I digress. Actaully, we think we are getting them out of that habit, but it is slow progress. William, on the other hand, is just getting worse and worse. He just will not stop doing things that he is not suppossed to be doing. Doesn't matter what is available to him, he will go for the thing that is the most critical that he should not be doing. He climbs up on the handles of the counters, and grabs things off the counter top. You can take it away from him, tell him no, and swat him on the bottom and after his fit, he is right back on the handles grabbing something else. Someday, I am sure he will learn, but it does not appear that will be anytime soon.

We seem to forgotten how it is with normal kids as we were so blessed with Maeghan. I am sure she did a lot of things that were naughty, but we don't remember anything like this. William is just a terror.

On the good side, William and Maeghan seem to get along really well together. When the other kids are around, Maeghan hardly ever plays with William, but when they are alone together, they paly all kids of chasing and running and other types of games. William is the only one who Maeghan can actually run away from and not get caught, barely. William is catching up pretty fast, but they will run around the house over and over again with William chasing Maeghan and both of them laughing all the time. It is about the only time William is not getting into trouble, when he is playing with Maeghan. Any other time, and Maeghan is playing with Anna or Jarvis and William is being ignored. I guess that is a lot of the reason he gets into trouble.

If they try to play chasing games with the other kids around, the other kids are too noisy, too clumsy, and just too big to be running through the house. The noise level goes up exponentially at those times and we end up sending them all outside. A good thing normally, but it never lasts very long and if one of them comes back in, then they all come back in.

Well, this font is annoying me and it is time I should be going home. I have some really big projects I should be working on, but it is late in the day on Friday and I didn't want to start anything and then have to leave it. I do have to set up a meeting before I go, but that should not take long.

Tomorrow is Maeghan's ballet concert. It is costing us $15 a ticket, a rediculous price for a kids ballet concert, but Juanita has seen the end of the show at rehearsal and she says I will just cry when I see how cute Maeghan is in the concert. From what Juanita says, she is still the star of the show and is the only one who does all the moves correctly. The other kids still just follow along with what the teacher is trying to tell them and don't get it right. Maeghan does everything on her own and does the routines without having the teacher tell her what to do.

I should have lots of things to say after the concert. Hopefully, she will be able to do it this time and not freeze up. I think she will be alright but we will see. I am planning on filming it all in any event. I have no idea how we are going to get William to stay still for that long, but maybe we can send him to his godmother's house. She loves having him over for some reason and he likes it because she buys him lots of toys and clothes and things.

We don't have a baseball game this week, we have a bye, but we had practise this week and I don't think any of the kids really want to play. Maeghan likes to play, but she is so small, she may never be able to get on base or throw the ball to where she has to throw it. I think she likes it but she is bored most of the time. Jarvis is about to be kicked off the team as he will not listen to me at all and just runs around doing whattever he wants or just sitting on the ground sulking because the ball is not being hit to him. Anna does ok, but I don't think she really likes it. A couple of kids on the team are in her class at school and she talks to them some but I don't think she really knows them. I spent most of the practice working with Maeghan, Jarvis and some kid named Samuel that I kept calling William. They are the smallest and least experienced so I had them learning to catch and throw and hit the ball. Maeghan still rarely misses but the ball does not go very far. I had my assistant coach throwing fly balls to the other kids and giving them batting practice while I worked with these three. I think I have said a couple of them are pretty good but I think they get bored with playing with the younger kids. We will see how it goes at the next practice.

Time for me to go now. I try to write again on Sunday, after the concert. I might even have new pictures to post. Not that I have come close to posting all the pictures I have, but maybe there will be one of Maeghan in her constumes.

Until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 60

Hello everybody. As you can see, the pictures are working again. I have done so many of these, I do not remember if I have posted this picture before or not. This is Maeghan's pre-school. She has been going for almost a year now. She still really enjoys it.
She only goes twice a week but she is also going to Ready, Set, Go, which is a program at real school that is suppossed to get kids ready to go to kindy (kindergarten).
You may not be aware of it, but Maeghan starts school in less than three months. Thats' right, less than three months. As much as I thought we were ready for this and she is ready for this, I am beginning to have more doubts.
She will be going to public school. Not something I wanted but we cannot afford to send all the kids to private school and we thought it would be better if she goes to school with them, instead of being at a separate school from the other kids.
Yes, I did say the other kids. Angela's kids now live with us, or two of them do. Anna, the oldest and Jarvis, the next oldest, live with us now. We went and picked it them up about two months ago, or maybe it was three. It feels more like years ago. It's a long story but basically the father called and asked us to come pick them up. Angela has been in Tasmania for about six months and three of the kids had been living with their father in Brisbane. (You know, as I write this, I think I have already written about this, but I cannot be bothered to go back and look, so I will write it all again.)
Angela had not seen them in all that time and we got a call from the father asking if we could take the kids for a while. After discussing it, it was decided this should be a more or less permanent arrangement. So off to Brisbane we went. We were suppossed to end up with all three of the kids there, but the other grandmother pulled some trick where she disappeared with the youngest boy and we had to leave without him.
So, leaving out all the details, we now have four kids. Anna and Jarvis, along with William and Maeghan. Anna and Jarvis already go to school, although in Brisbane, they had hardly ever been going. But now they are here and go everyday. Next year, Maeghan will join them at the school. It is just down the street from us, within walking distance. Not that we let them walk by themselves, but we sometimes walk them to and from school, if we do not drive them.
Maeghan goes to the program I mentioned earlier at this school. It is only one day a week ad she only goes for a couple of hours, but they are suppossed to be learning what it is like in real school. As far as I can tell, they only play and go to the library to listen to stories but maybe that is what real school is like.
Having Anna and Jarvis here is turning out to be kind of hard. Not that I did not think it would be this hard, but Juanita seemed to think nothing would change. I am not saying we did not do the right thing as these kids were growing up in an unhealthy environment and something had to be done. We are doing what is best for the kids but I don't think it is really fair on Maeghan and William. Now that we have all four kids to support, Maeghan and William will miss out on some of the things me would have been able to do if they were not here. There is nothing to do about it now, but some of the things they might miss out on are trips to America or vacations or some of the expensive toys we have been buying them. Where we could afford to take them places before, we cannot now afford to take them to the same places or spend quite as much money on them without having to also give the same type of things to the other kids. They will probably never notice it and it should not be a problem in the future, I just feel kind of bad when thinking about what they might have had if the situation had not been what it was. But I guess that is life and we never know where it is going to take us. Whoever thought I would move to Australia and start a new family after I turned 40. Not that I have actually reached 40 yet, but it will be a change when I eventually do.
The kids all started playing t-ball this past week. Anna, Jarvis, and ever Maeghan. William wants to play but he is still too young. Maeghan is still too young but they said it would be alright. After our first game, I am not so sure. She looks so tiny out there. I know, I go on and on about this, but when she is out there with the other kids and either batting or standing in the field, she is really, really small.
They did not have a uniform small enough to fit her but we have modified some clothes to fit. They are still way too big on her. And she has to wear a helmet when batting and most of the helmets are too big and they wobble around on her head but she does look cute in it.
As I have not mentioned it yet, I am coaching the team they are on. All of them are on the same team and somehow, Juanita voluntered me to coach. I thought it was just something we had to put down on paper to support the organization, but when they were calling out the teams, they called my name and told the players to stand by when when their name was called. No introduction, no instructions, just here are your players, here is your equipement and we start next week. Having never even seen a tball game, I had no idea what we were suppossed to do or what we were suppossed to be teaching the kids.
About three quarters of the players have never played before. A couple of them have been playing for a few years. Of course, Maeghan, Anna, and Jarvis have never seen a baseball glove or thrown a ball the correct way and even though the ball is on a tee in front of them, they have no idea where to stand, how to hold a bat or how to swing it to hit the ball. Most of the kids have sort of the same problems, but at least they have seen baseball before and know the basics.
I could be wrong, but aren't most American kids born with the ability to throw and catch a ball. Maybe not well, but the fundamentals are there. Most kids can even swing a bat. Maybe not hit anything but they can swing it. I have noticed that most australians, even adults, don't have a clue about how to throw a baseball or swing a bat or catch a ball with a glove. They are used to cricket, where they do not use gloves to catch the ball and the bat they use they point down to the ground and try to hit a ball that is bounced to them. It might be difficult to do, not that I really think so, but I have to acknowledge their efforts or I won't be able to get along with them. I have mentioned to several people that the hardest thing to do it sports is hit a baseball thrown by a major league pitcher. They have all scoffed at me but that is because they have no idea what I am talking about. Just a side note, it is really hard over here with the sports they have. I like most of them, although australian rules football is kind of silly and I don't understand why they like it over here, but they think football is a silly game and no one over here likes that. Rugby and cricket are ok, rugby being sort of like football and critket being sort of like baseball, but there are just no sports over here I have even begun to have a passionate interest in. Guess it will take a while longer but then again, maybe I will never really care about it.
We had our first game this past week. I have no idea whether we won or lost. I had to volunteer Juanita to keep score and she did not really know how to do it and I did not have a lot of time to show her, so I am not sure she had the scores correct. According to her scoresheet, we lost 19 to 17 but on some innings she had only two outs being made and sometimes there were four are five people left on base at the end of the inning. But it doesn't really matter and she will learn how by next time.
Maeghan only got to bat twice but she hit the ball the first try both times. It only rolled to pitcher and she can't run to first base very fast, so she never got on base. Since she cannot really run all that way and it takes her forever, she might never get on base but the oppossing coach told me after the game that he was going to instruct the pitcher to throw the ball away if she got up again and that way she could have made it all the way. According to the rules, we can only bat 9 players in an inning and she was the tenth batter in the last inning so she was did not get to bat again.
We bat everyone on the team but only nine play in the field. She and Anna were sitting on the bench for the first two innings but they got in the game for the last half. Maeghan played centre field. It was really hot out there and she was only a few fet behind second base but she looked so small and alone out there that I went and stood beside her for most of the last inning. I am allowed to be on the field when we are fielding so I can go anywhere I need to be. We had another first time player pitching for the second half of the game and I had to go help him out a few times and leave Maeghan. He is probably the next smallest player after Maeghan and he tries really hard. A lot of the players only hit the ball a few feet, so the pitcher gets a lot of work runnig in and picking up the ball. He did a good job, although he never actually threw the ball all the way to first. He also had some trouble batting and missed the ball to strike out the first two times at bat. The last time, he barely made contact and almost made it to first, but they threw him out. As I said, Maeghan never missed the ball and could hit it all the way to the pitcher, but she just cannot run all that way to first base. I have no idea what she is going to do if she ever makes it. She then has to run to second base and then third. I think that is going to be our goal for the season is to get Maeghan all the way around the bases so she can score.
None of the kids can actually close their gloves on the ball, even though they have these new kind of gloves that are very flexible. Maeghan can barely get her hand into the one she has and it is the smallest one we could find. She can get it on the ball when you throw it to her, but she cannot close it, so it just rolls out. I have tried to teach her to put her other hand over the ball when she catches it and she can do that if it is an easy throw and she is quick. She scheduled to be the pitcher the next time we play, which is not for two weeks because we have a bye next week. I have already made out the lineups, basically I just rotate everyone around each position. The players who have been playing for a while do not like that but I think it is working out well. Of course, we have only had one game. We have a practice this week and I hope to allow those players that cannot hit to practice as much as they can. The others, I will get them used to chasing the ball down and throwing it to the right base. Not that they will learn anything from that as they need to learn how to catch and throw before they have to think about the right things to do, but some of them will catch on.
William wanted to play the whole time we were out there. He had to stay strapped up in his pram because if we let him out, he would have run on the field. Juanita was keeping score and I was coaching, so he was not allowed to get out. Next time, we are going to take Natalie along so she can play with William during the game.
He loves playing with the ball and gloves. He can't put the glove on and he throws the ball in all directions, mostly backwards, but he love to play. Maybe by the time it is his turn to play, he will be able to do all the fundamentals and keep up with the big boys.
One thing they have us do is award a player of the game for my team. That is really hard as there are several players that deserve the trophy. The problem I see with it is I have about three players who will always win the trophy. Just because they can run and hit and throw. None of them can actually catch the ball very well, but they knwo what to do with it. I am thinking about getting a couple of other trophys for the other kids to win. Something like best effort and most improved. I think that will allow everone to win a trophy sometime during the year. They do not get to keep these trophies as we re-reward them each week, but they get to keep it for a week and then bring it back.
On other news, Maeghan has her ballet concert this Saturday, I think. It might be next week but she is going to try it again this year. Last time, she was tired and upset for the concert and did not perform in it. This time, we are hoping for better but I don't think they are counting on her to be the star like they were the last time. She is still small, but she is with kids who have been dancing for a while and she might not be the best anymore. I don't know how the teachers feel about her this time, I never get to talk to them. Anna is also in one of the concerts. They are not together but Anna has her own program to do. I have not seen anything that Anna is doing, so I have no idea what her role will be. She takes Jazz Ballet or something like that.
I suppose I should be going now. Not a lot more to say. Health wise, William is finally over his problems. We never did really find out what the problem was and he was sick for over a month, with the doctors continually telling us he had a virus and there was nothing they could do. He is all better now but that has only made us all dread the times when he is awake. He is still a real terror and gets into everything. Not always fun and sometimes he gets in a lot of trouble, but he is cute when he is getting into trouble, so he is quickly forgiven.
Juanita still has her problems. She has been sick for basically two years or more. Lots of different things and the doctors never seem to really believe her but she finally got a procedure done that was suppossed to fix the problem. It may or may not have done so. She is still having problems and she goes back to the doctor next week. If she is still having problems, then she will have to have an operation to fix it. We don't know what they will be doing yet, but we will find out next week.
My achilies tendon injury has been acting up. Some days, I cannot even walk but it comes and goes and again, the doctors say there is nothing they can do about it. Guess it is just another thing I will have to learn to live with.
Other than that, we are doing ok. Maeghan goes to the doctor in the next two weeks. Just her annual checkup. She appears to be doing fine and this will be the final word on whether she is allowed to start school in three months. They might give her a wheelchair for school but I don't think she will be using it. Maybe, but I don't think so. She would only need it is she is getting tired walking to classes but I don't think they do all that much walking in kindy. They stay mostly in the same room all day.
I'll be going now. Hope to be back soon. Probably after our next ball game or maybe a report on the concert. We'll see.
Until next time,
Talk to you later

MWNews 59

Seems the blogger is broke. It will not let me upload any images. Tells me they are aware of this problem, but does not offer any solutions. If it starts working, I will add an image to this file. It not, then I wouldn't wait for it and I would just keep reading.

I have almost given up on writing these. Not that I do not want to, I just never seem to find the time. I am always thinking I will get back to it and try tp schedule some time to do it, but I never seem to get to it. Like now, it is 2am, and I should be sleeping as I have a meeting at 3:30, but I got to thinking about the meeting and could not go back to sleep, so here I am. Probably will be falling asleep around the time the meeting starts, that is what usually happens.

Another issue is this typing is very loud. I don't know if Juanita can hear it in bed, but my office is in the closet next to the bedroom and I cannot close the door all the way, and the keyboard is very loud, so I might have to give up and continue during the day. Which means I will never get back to it. And to add to the problems, it appears that the batteries for this keyboard are going flat as I am typing lots of words but not all of them are comming through. I have to keep going back and retyping everything I have typed. Ok, the problem is beyond what I can endure. I am going to have to change the batteries. Be back in a minute.

There, now we shall see if it was the batteries or something else. It appears to have been the batteries as the only mistakes now are the ones I make typing. Glad to have that mystery solved. Of course, it doesn't address the mouse issue I am having, but that is a whole other story.

The news that is the news begins now.

As I have not posted in many months, there would seem to be a lot to tell you. I am sure I will not get to half of it, nor do I think I will even try. I think I will just start fresh and tell you about things as I remember them. I might repeat some old posts, and if you are reading these in order or something, it will be mere moments before I start repeating myself, but for me, it will have been a really long time and we know how my memory goes.

Maeghan has been at pre-school for almost a year now. She still really likes it and can't wait to go to big school. We have decided to enroll her for next year, and when I say next year, it is really just after the first of the year. Sometime at the end of January, when the school year starts. Just typing that has made be think about it. Maeghan is almost at school. I know we have been talking about it for some time, but now that it is so close, I am getting a little anxious. She is still tiny, much smaller than most of the other kids her age and I am really worried about how this will all go and how the other kids will react. She will be going to public school, something I am not favor of but we will give it a try, so things will not be as controlled as I would like. The reasons for this I might go into later but for now, it is just something we are going to do.

She does go to something called Ready, Set, Go. A program the school runs that is suppossed to get kids ready for when they begin school. It is not as good as pre-school, but I suppose it is a different environment and gets her used to going to the new school.

Maeghan is ready to go. She is mentally ready, although she has never had to deal with other kids who are not as nice as they should be. On occasion, she has had other kids pick on her and she usually will just stand there until she starts to cry. The teachers say they have not noticed this behaviour, so maybe it only happens when we are around, but I am still really worried about it. I guess all parents go through that, so we just have to get used to it.

She doesn't have a lot of friends at school, but she has some. She will not normally join in with other kids but prefers to have them join in with what she is doing. She does alright but as I keep typing this, I get more worried about it, so I am going to move on to something else.

William turns two next month. It's about time. He thinks he is about six already and acts like he owns the world, or it is just here to amuse him. Since the other kids have moved in with us, more about that later, he has developed this habit of screeming whenever he does not get what he wants. Not sure where that comes from, but I can guess. He has gotten better at talking, or we can understand him better. There is not a lot he cannot say that we do not understand, and if he cannot say it, we get him to show us what he wants or means and we get the idea then.

When Maeghan was a baby, we called her bottles, boppies. Some cute Australian thing they do with most words. Maeghan would always say she wanted a boppie. William refuses to say boppie. I have no idea why. It is a bottle, or bobble, not boppie. Lately, we have been trying to get him from drinking from a bottle, but he still wil call out bottle, bottle, whenever he is thirsty. Sometime, he will say drink, because we always ask him if he wants a drink, but most of the time it is still bottle. He does have this annoying habit of getting into the cuboards and getting his own cup to drink out of. We have the cupboard where the kids cups are down low so they can get them themselves, but he thinks this is his personell playground and will pull everything out looking for the cup he wants.

He does occasionly say bop-bop, but usually only when you do not answer him fast enough when he first asks. He also likes to say cuddle all the time and will hold his arms out so you have to pick him up and hold him. I don't know if he thinks cuddle means pick me up or he really wants to be held but how can you refuse his cute little voice saying cuddle with his arms raised in front of you. So, either way, he gets what he wants.

I am going to have to finish this later, as he is in bed with Juanita, another long story, and the typing is disturbing him. As I always say, hopefully, I can do this more often. I have a lot to say and maybe the worry about Maeghan going to school will help me write more often. Its good theoropy, I think. Anyway, I will mave to go and get 20 minutes sleep before my meeting. I hope everyone that reads this is doing well. Of course, I hope everyone is doing well even if they do not read this. It has been a while, so maybe it gives you some time to go and re-read some of the old notes. I know I enjoy that a lot.

Until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 58

Ok, the cheese and hot sauce I had with the chips and sandwich were making me feel guilty.
I don't think I can make them any shorter than this.
Until next time,
Later

MWNews 57

Just a really quick note about the last post. After re-reading it I noticed that I did not say any of the funny things I usually say, or try to say. So I thought I would come back and tell you the real reason I had to stop typing.
I kept hearing this funny noise coming from the other room. At first I thought it was just the wind starting to blow from the storm that is approaching but then I decided I should go check it out, after the experience I had the other night with the broken pipe.
It turns out it was just a ham sandwich calling me and I ended up having to make that and some chips before I could go to bed. I didn't think I would remember for the next time, so I am creating another entry.
Anyway, the shortest note I have ever put in here is now complete.
Until next time,
Later

MWNews 56

We have survived the floods, or almost. There are some new storms headed our way, but I think these will be to the south of us.
In case you do not remember, and why would you, there will probably be a lot more floods before you get a chance to read this, we had some heavy rain here for about two or three days. Since we live about four blocks from the lake and about three blocks from the river that feeds the lake, when things started to rise, we were caught in the middle. Not that we ever had any real danger, but the water did come up to the street next door and the roads were closed all around us.
We were never actually trapped in, we could always get out, but it wasn't looking good for a while. We did lose power on the first day and did not get it back until late in the evening two days later. At one point, we considered leaving and going to Brisbane or somewhere safe but we never actually got passed the stage of just talking about it. We did get to have pizza two night in a row, since the power was out and I could not cook.
I did have the BBQ and I did make a very nice breakfast of bacon and eggs, with hash browns on the grill. The problem with using the grill was that it was raining most of the time and I could not make my way from the back door to the BBQ. Several times during all the rain, the backyard did flood. About two or three inches deep at times, but this was probably because it was raining so hard that the water could not run away fast enough.
Before I got home on Friday, the day the rain started, Juanita said the street outside was flooded all the way across because the drains could not handle anymore water. I went through several passes on the roads were covered with water, even the freeways. I saw lots and lots of cars that had been stranded by flash floods on the roads. On the F3, the big freeway that takes me to work and back, it is lined on both sides for quite a ways with rocks cliffs where they cut the road through them. A lot of these were just solid waterfalls as you drove by but they must have really good drainage systems on the highway as there were very few places where the water was coming across the road.
I drove to pick up Adam from work on the first day, Friday, and the road that I use to get there was under water on the opposite side from where I was driving. The little dirt road that you have to go down to get to where he was was almost completely covered most of the way. I wasn't very deep but in some places, it was running pretty fast and I was afraid it might try to wash the car into the ditch. While I was waiting for Adam, the rain stopped for a while so that by the time we left, most of the water had already run off the road.
While I was waiting, I heard some really loud thunder. It sounded kind of like a very large truck was coming up behind me, but I could find where it was coming from. About the third or fourth time this happened, I figured out that it was thunder. Juanita says there was some really, really loud thunder at the house that caused all of them to jump and Maeghan to start crying. She said the windows shook it was so bad and Maeghan had been in Williams room when it happened and came running in crying. It might have been the same thunder I was hearing as it probably happened around the same time.
At one point, the Wyong river (I don't know if that is the same river that is near us but I think it is) crested at the highest level it had ever been. Apparently, there was some major bridge that was covered with water. I always thought it was the bridge that we go across to get to Wyong but I am not sure. If it was that one, then that is the only way into and out of Wyong from that direction. And there are a lot of houses along that part of the river that would have been underwater.
All the houses along the lake were covered with water, or the yards and streets were, the houses were in about three feet of water. There are some pictures of the local shops that showed them to have water about halfway up the doors. They sit a little below street level and the street was completely covered, so they must have had a lot of water in them. We have a friend that lives right there, but her house is up on stilts, so it did not receive any damage. She had left for some friends house before the water got too high.
This is a friend from church. The church we go to is a big tent in the middle of a field. They are building a church on the same site, but there is no estimate of when that will be finished. I mention it because there was a story and picture in the paper that showed the tent. All you could see was the top of the tent in the picture. The whole area was completely under water. They knew they were part of a flood plane, but the amount of water that was there had to be at least five or six feet deep. We went by several days later and the field next to the church property was still under a lot of water. It looked like it was a lake that had always been there. The church lost a lot of things and they are estimating about $10000 worth of damage. Not sure how long they will be out of action, but the did hold service two weeks later.
I say we missed the floods when it was raining. We had our own little flood a week after the rain, two days ago as a matter of fact. I was working in the middle of the night, around 3 am, when I kept hearing this high pitched noise. I got up to investigate what it might be. I could tell it was coming from the direction of the water heater which is outside in the carport. I wanted to see what was going on, so I went into our bedroom to turn on the outside lights. While in there, I could hear water running in the en suite. I started towards that, thinking maybe someone had left the water running or something. As I approached the en suite, I noticed I was walking through a puddle on the floor. When I got the door, I could see steam coming out from around the edges of the door and I thought that maybe the shower was on. When I opened the door, the whole room was flooded and I could tell the water was coming from under the sink. I opened the drawers of the cabinet and they were all full of water. I found that the hot water pipe, and I use the word pipe loosely for this as it is actually just a hose, I found that it had a big hole in it and was pouring water everywhere. Not only could I not reach through all the hot water to find out what the problem was, it kept fogging up my glasses so I could not see even if I could get my hand back there. I could see there was no valve or anything to turn the water off under the sink. I went outside to the water heater to see if I could turn it off there but could find no way to do that either. Juanita had to go out to the main valve for the entire house and turn it off there. I did not even know you could do that without a special tool but apparently here, it just has a normal valve on it and there are not normally individual valves in the house.
Once we had the water off, we began to survey the damage. The carpet outside the bathroom door and about four feet into the bedroom was completely soaked. More like a puddle that a wet carpet. It is still that way two days later and the real estate company says they are working on getting someone here to fix it.
Not only was the carpet wet, but when we went into the walk in wardrobe, it was covered in about two inches of water. It is directly opposite the bathroom and is really big. At on point in this houses life, it was actually used as a bedroom, with its own closet. Now it is the walking wardrobe and we have a lot of stuff stored in there. All of it was under this two inches of water.
Not having any way to suck up the water nor anyway to push it towards the drain in the bathroom, especially since the bathroom floor is about one inch higher than the en suite floor, I had to spend the next two hours mopping up the water. To let you know how much water this was, I filled six mop buckets with water from the mop before I could finally use towels to try to get the rest of it up. this was a lot of hard work as I could only about a quarter cup of water in each mop full and the mop bucket holds about three gallons of water. It was a long and tiring process.
We went without water for most of the next day as that is how long it took to get a plumber here to fix the pipe. He replaced both the hot water pipe and the cold water one. Today, the new cold water pipe started leaking and created more puddles in the bathroom. We had to have the plumber back out to fix that pipe.
We still do not have the carpets fixed and we have no idea when that will happen. I was told that the carpet people were on their way over to rip up and replace all the wet carpet, but when someone showed up, they only took measurements and the left. Don't know when they will be back but we will be calling the real estate again tomorrow to try to get someone out here. I am sure the carpet will start to mildew and smell very shortly and we don't want that to happen with the kids running around all the time. We try to keep them out of our room now, so they do not have to walk through the water, but they sometimes get in there on there own.
Another thing that happened during the storm was the wind. Lots and lots of trees were blown over. I mean lots of trees. Hardly a property here did not receive some kind of wind damage. Part of the back fence on this place blew down. Tress were lying everywhere. That is probably the reason we lost power for almost two days, not that we ever got an explanation as to why that happened.
As bad as it was here, it was a whole lot worse northwest of us. They had some serious flooding, where whole houses were under water. They are still recovering from that and the water is still covering most of the land up there. It is about an hours drive from us and we have been in that are many times. It is the Maitland area and the water created up here about 11 feet above flood level. It was pretty bad and I think there are still places without running water and electricity.
In Newcastle, there was a ship that was washed up on the beach. I think that story might have made news in a lot of places, but it is such a big thing here that we went up there to see it this past Saturday. It is huge. And it is all the way up on the beach. If the tide was not so high, it would be completely out of the water. I took several pictures of it but I had to take them on my cell phone as I forgot to bring the camera. We might take another trip up there in a couple of weeks so I can get better pictures. I am sure it will still be there as they have not figured out a way they can move it yet. Apparently, this happened just north of this same area about thirty years ago. That ship is apparently still there because they could never get it off the beach.
This ship is huge. It is a big cargo ship and it is probably about 400 yards long and sits about 50 yards high. I have no idea why it doesn't tip over but it appears to be buried enough in the sand so that it is relatively stable. We still have not heard all the true story of how it got there. I do know that it was originally in the Newcastle shipping yards and when all the ships were ordered to leave the harbour, it did not. I don't know a whole lot more than that and have not seen and official word on what caused the accident to happen.
We could get to about a hundred yards of the ship when we were there. They have the whole area fenced off but they have created two fenced paths where you can walk up to it. I just have to keep saying how Hugh this ship is. I don't know what it was carrying but I think it is one of the coal carrying ships, kind of like an oil tanker. I don't think there was anything in it at the time, but I do not really know.
I suppose I should be leaving this entry now. I have not said a whole lot about the kids or what they have been up to. They were not really impressed with the whole ship thing and their whole perception of the flood and blackout was that they got to run around with flashlights all the time. They loved that. They still try to get the flashlights out and carry them around.
We have another storm approaching us as I am typing this. It is supposed to be bigger than the last one but we are not really in the direct line of its path. It is supposed to be south of us but will eventually reach where we are. Hopefully, it will have abated by the time it gets here. It has been raining off and on for a while but nothing like what it was and there does not appear to be a lot of wind at this point. We are not supposed to get the really heavy parts until sometime early in the morning, around 5 am I think. It is only midnight as I am writing this.
I'll get to more news about Maeghan and William soon. There hasn't been a whole lot of change since the last time but they are so cute, there is always a whole lot of things to talk about with them. We still have not made a final decision on whether Maeghan will do to school next year. It really depends on what all the teachers and social workers have to say about it. Most of them, so far, are recommending that she not go, but we have a couple more that want to observe her at daycare to make their recommendation.
William is still William and still gets into trouble all the time. Mostly for doing things he is not supposed to do. He has been sick with a cold for a week or so now and hasn't really gotten over the sickness he had the last time I wrote. Maybe he will be getting better soon. Might be time to take him to see a doctor. He won't like it, or he won't like having to stay still for anything. He is always on the go and doesn't stay still for any length of time.
I will go ahead and close this entry for now. It is late and William has already taken my spot in bed. He wakes up each night and walks from his room to our room and taps us on the feet until we wake up and put him in bed. I can't sleep with him in the bed, so I end up going to his room and sleeping in his bed. So I am off to his bed now and will try to get some sleep before my meeting in about four hours. I always have early morning meetings, so it is nothing new for me.
Until next time,
Talk to you later

MWNews 55

I haven't posted in a while. I have had several drafts but I never completed them. This might be another. We will see.
The reason I have not posted is that your grandmother died. I am not really sure who really reads this blog on a regular basis, but I know she used to and was always disappointed when there were gaps in my publishing a new entry. I know your grandfather reads them occasionally. I don't know of anyone else who looks for and waits for these.
I have always said I write this for the kids, so they can read them when I get old. I suppose now is the time to start really addressing these to you and not just reporting the things you have said and done.
I have to say, I miss your grandmother. It has not been all that long since she passed away and you never got a chance to know her. She was my mother and while I had not seen her for a while, it has been hard knowing you will never get the chance to meet her and let her know how special you are and how much you would have loved to spend time with her. She loved the two of you and missed you terribly. She never got a chance to meet William but we always told her about you and we let her know what a wonderful little boy you are. She always remembered Maeghan for the special little girl you are. I know, you are not a little girl anymore, but your grandmother will always remember you that way.
A lot has happened in the time I have not been writing. I will not even attempt to go back and recount it all. I will just start fresh and move on from this point forward. I might make sidetrips into the past, but that is just because you have created so many memories and moments, I always have to share them when I remember them. My mind is not what it used to be, so I might embelish some of your antics from now on. I certainly have not done anything like that in the past. But it is only so I can embarris you with them later. Its all in good fun. For me. Maybe not for you.
I'll get the everyone is well statement out of the way first. Both your mother and I have started to feel the fact that we are way to overweight. We are trying to do something about it and hopefully, by the time you are able to read this, you will say you cannot believe we were ever overweight. It will take time, so don't learn to read until you are at least 15 or 16. We have taken the precaution of hiding all the books in the house, so don't fret when you see them at other peoples houses, they are just there for decoration.
We are thinking of sending Maeghan to school next year. We had always thought we would do that, but lately, we are getting the advice that we should wait another year. Not only from the school, but the pre-school and several of our friends. They say it does not make a lot of difference now, but it will in the future when you are more mature and have to handle bigger problems. We have not decided yet. I would like to let you go now and get the headstart it seems this will create, you are certainly ready for it now, but maybe they have good points and it would be better to wait. It will give Juanita another year to spend at home with you, which is a good thing. We are almost definately going to send both of you to private school and she will have to go back to work to pay for it when the time comes. Anyway, we will be sure to let you know when the time arrives.
William is not ready for school yet. If we sent him, he would wreck the school. He certainly does his best to wreck the house. He is still the never stop, always going full tilt kid. He can reach more things now, so he can get into almost everything. Pushing things back on the bench has been no help as he can climb up the drawers and get onto the counter. If that doesn't work, he climbs up on his high chair and gets on things from there. It is on rollers, so he can push it around to where he wants to go and use it to get into everything. We thought about tieing him to something, but we could not decide what it was we could do without. He would wreck anything he was that close to.
We moved house since the last time. We live in a nice house in Chittaway Bay. It is just up the road from where we used to live, in Shelly Beach. It is not close to the ocean, or not as close as we were before, but it is a much nicer house and has a backyard and front yard you can play in. It has four bedrooms but I am using one as my office. Maeghan is in one, William is in another and we are in the master bedroom. You might notice that I failed to mention where all the other kids are living. Well, we are proud (or sad if they are reading this) to say that no one lives with us anymore. All the grown up kids are gone. To places unknown to us, which we like it that way.
Actually, Michael has moved on to Brisbane. He has a job up there and lives with your mother's ex. Angela, who was here for a while, is still back in Brisbane but is currently hiding from her kids in Tasmania. She has the youngest, Shayla, with her but the others are staying with their father in Brisbane. Two of them, Anna and Jarvis, had to go back to school and Leslie just wanted to go back with his dad. I am not so sure about the current arrangement, but I have no say in it, so I guess I will keep my opinions to myself. (Maybe I am not that old but I certainly do not want to lose my image of a curmudgeon.)
Natalie and Adam, our borders for almost two years, have moved on to his sisters place. It is over near where we used to live. I am not sure how that arrangement is working out. I know they are looking for their own place. Not sure how hard they are looking but I just want to avoid them looking at our place as a refuge when they have problems with their current situation. Not that we would not allow them to stay for a while, but I would not want it to be another two years. Especially, since I have just got an office I can work out of in the house. The master bedroom is probably big enough for either my office or William to move into,
Had to jump up and leave for a minute. William is not feeling well, I am not feeling well myself, and he was coughing a lot just now. I went in to check on him, but he seems to be ok. Now if I can remember what I was talking about.
Oh yes, the kids moving in again. Adam currently has a job and Natalie is looking for one, so hopefully, soon, they will be able to afford their own place. Adam's car has just about given it up, so he will have to put money into that, but if both of them get work, they will not have too many more money problems. Then again, we always have money problems, so that is not likely to happen for them. But we will see.
It is currently 3 am. I do my best work when I am not sleeping. I have a meeting in a couple of hours, so I should get some sleep before that. I hope this little bit of information is enough to tide you over until the next time I write. Then again, if you are reading this when I am old, there won't be much gap at all between posts.
And for anyone out there who might be reading this and waiting on every word, let me know. It would be nice to hear from someone now and then.
Until next time,
Later

MWNews 54

Today is Maeghan's birthday. She is now four. A big girl as she says. Not big enough for big school, but she is now going to little school. She started going to pre-school twice a week a few weeks ago. She has a friend from across the street that is there on one of the days she attends. She loves it. The first day we took her, all she wanted to do was go play with all the toys. We were being shown around and introduced to the staff but she kept wandering off to find something to play with.

They have two groups at the school. One for kids two and three years old and one for the four and five year olds. They were originally going to put her in the younger group because she is so small, but after they talked to her, they decided she was old enough to go to the older group. they did say she should probably wait until she is six or just before she turns six before she goes to regular school. We said we would wait and see but she is ready to go now.

I am probably going to have to leave this and come back to it as it is almost time to go pick her up. She goes from 9 to 3 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We were worried about her going to the toilet and being really small compared to the other kids, but they have the little toliets for her, that she can get on herself, and the teachers are really on the look out for any kids being bullies or picking on the smaller kids. They seem to understand this problem, which is something that is prevalent in the bigger schools, and they keep an eye out for any sign of it.