MWNews 85

Thought I would include a picture of all of us, we have so few. We wet away for my birthday this year. Turned 39 again. Didn't go very far and just for a couple of days, but it was nice.

That was back in April. Been so long away from this, I forget what I was doing here. Something about the kids and stuff. Just lack the time and effort to keep this up. Will post as I can I suppose.

A little about where I am. I completed the big project I was working on. Ended up in the hospital with stress related issues. Lots of headaches, dizziness and generally not feeling well. I got better but it was worrisome for a while. Didn't get a lot of reward or recognition for the project and I probably made the mistake of spreading the congratulations around too much. I guess it made it look like I did nothing on the project and the others got all the rewards, but maybe somewhere, someone knows what I went through to get it in on time.

Enough about me. By the way, this picture is from what I was led to believe was an air walk type of thing we wanted to see. It is near Coffs Harbour in New South Wales. About 6 hours from Sydney. Look it up. We drive through there on the way to Brisbane and have only stopped a couple of times. We decided to spend some time there and see what was around. I read up on it and found this air walk. Turns out it is about 200 meters long and just ends in this hanging platform overlooking basically nothing. A real disappointment. I think was some interesting things on the hiking path but they are not wheelchair accessible and we did not go very far down the paths.

Which brings us to Maeghan. Hate to say too much here but I think we are seeing the problems that have always been there in the background ready to happen. She is still the best little girl around and, with her front two teeth missing, she is really gorgeous when she smiles and laughs. Of course, I think she knows how cute she looks when she smiles so she has a tendency to pose a lot. It is cute, but I think she overdoes it sometimes.

Not that she is really having a lot of problems, but the doctors are really worried about her weight. She is just not growing but she is getting heavier all the time. The doctors say her legs cannot handle the weight and we need to do something about it. But she just does not eat all that much and I am not sure if it weight from the food she is eating. I just think her upper body is growing and her lower body is not keeping up, but we have to try to do something. She is over a meter now, 103 centimeters, and she weighs around 24 kilos. Not a lot for a girl her age, but a lot for her size. She gets tired these days and says her legs hurt, so we bring the wheel chair with us everywhere. Some of it might be just the desire to ride all the time, but she gets frustrated with not being able to keep up, so she gets in the chair so she does not have to try to walk as fast as everyone else.

I think I might have mentioned I think it is just the beginning but as no one can predict what will happen, we can always hope for the best. She has so exceeded everything the doctors have said she would ever be able to do, I just think we are happy she is so happy. Hard to write, I will have to take a break from this.

William has started pre-pre-school. It is the ready, set, go program. The same one Maeghan went to before she started school. Basically, they go once a week to get them used to the kids they will be going to school with, instead of the kids in day care. They do some crafts and things and it is held at the real school he will be going to next year.

William thinks it is great. He gets to go to big school with Maeghan now. He doesn't understand that it is only one day a week for now. After we took him the first day, he had to go back to day care a couple of days later. He cried and protested the whole way saying he goes to big school now and does not go to the day care. It was hard to get him out of the car and take him in, but he finally went.

Both the kids like school, for now. Maeghan spent a couple of weeks at home while we waited to get into the doctor for a checkup. She thinks she was being home schooled but she really did not do a whole lot while she was at home. She went back after the winter break and does not seem to mind taking her chair anymore. She did have some issues with bringing it for a while, but I think she is ok now.

Maeghan has also started reading better. Not that she ever had any problems, but she has gotten to the top of her class now, along with a few others. She reads everything now and seems to like doing it. She is ok with math, but missing school, I think, has made her a bit behind there. Not that the teacher has said anything, but she seems to not have a grasp of some of the homework she brings home. Not sure if that is because she has missed the lessons in class or maybe they just never explained it in class. I have found that some of her homework has nothing to do with what they are doing in class. It is just sent home with the kids to give them something to do.

We think we are going to get William into soccer or something next year. Something to help him burn off some of that endless energy he has. We have noticed lately, that he will go and go and go, and then just crash. Goes from talking a mile a minute to being asleep in about 30 seconds. And he does talk all the time now. He is always telling stories and trying to get your attention. And, he still gets in trouble a lot. He has this thing about always telling you he wants to be the good boy, mostly immediately after he has done something bad. Juanita thinks this might be a problem in school next year but I think he is fine. He gets in trouble in day care for not listening a lot, but I think he knows it and he knows what he is supposed to do, so once he is in a more structured environment, he will do what he needs to do.

He did finally get the gold star at day care. For a while, he would tell us everyday that he was good all day but he did not get the gold star. He got stickers but no gold star. Apparently, they give that to the best kid for the day. He finally got one last Friday, so he is happy now.

I am having a lot of trouble typing for some reason, so I am going to leave this for now. It is 5 am here and I had a couple of minutes free on the computer, so I thought I would type a few notes. Now, I cannot type anymore, so I will leave it for later.

As always, it good to hear from you. Until next time.

Talk to you later

MWNews 84

It's been another day and all is well, although William has just come in to tell on Maeghan for doing something to him. Not sure what it was, but it was probably real important. Now he is telling me his game doesn't work. I think the batteries might be flat. It is only a Leapfrog game. He wants a DS but that will have to wait for his birthday. Until then, he has to be content with playing Juanita's or Maeghan's.

We had the grandkids over last night. Juanita is sick, so they were free to run amuck. Someone should have controlled them. By the time I got here, baby William was here also, so there were seven kids here last night. Since Juanita is sick, I sent them all home. Two of them have gone already, Anna and baby William. They are coming back for the rest later in the day.

Any, you might be asking why I am not watching them. If you are, you might not have been paying attention. There are seven of them. Seven. I am much too old to be watching that many kids. I made them breakfast, pancakes. I made approximately 400 pancakes and they ate all but three of them. I would have had those, but a bird came down and swooped them away before I could get to them.

Another side trip, I cook the pancakes out on the BBQ. Now, you might wonder how I cook pancakes on a BBQ grill but the answer is, they don't use BBQ grills over here, they use sheet metal. Or, in my case, a big piece of iron. Now, if you are in Texas, you might be starting to shout Blasphemey! and I would agree, but that is how they do it. They look at me strange when I use the grill side of the BBQ. It is just not done that way, apparently. The reason could be that when an Australian uses the grill side of the BBQ, you get charcoal on the outside and raw in the middle. Not that it really matters with what they call sausages over here, but it is typical BBQ fare. Hard crusty outside, soft mushy inside. And, I have done it a few times myself. Set fire to everything, I mean. I tend to do it with lamb chops and sometimes pork ribs. These are the big meaty pork ribs not the traditional 3 and down ones you see in America. You can get the typical American ribs over here, and they even call them American ribs, but they are kind of pricey. The big meaty ones are getting to be pricey also, we have not had them in a while, but since I never get my smoker out to cook the 'real' ribs, we never buy those either. Maybe someday I can cook on my smoker again, but just haven't found the time in a very long while.

Now that was a side trip. Not sure what I was talking about that got me started on it. OK, I remember, it was cooking pancakes on the BBQ. The reason I do that is there is this big iron plate in the BBQ and it makes a perfect griddle. And, when I have a big crowd, I can cook four pancakes at once, so it makes a good place to keep them all fed while still keeping the pancakes fresh. We do a lot of breakfasts on the BBQ. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, sometimes even hashbrowns and cooked onions. I have even been know to throw some mushrooms on there from time to time. I still use the grill for everything else, and occasionally set fire to everything, but most of the time it works.

Which does bring up the story of Christmas dinner. I had a big rolled pork roast I was going to cook on the spit in the BBQ. I had done it a few weeks before Christmas and it came out really well, so I thought I would try a bigger one for Christmas. The problem was, I did not take into account the limited power of the rottissorie. It just does not have the power to turn that big a piece of meat. I got it working, but it was flakey at times and I had to keep an eye on it to make sure it did not get stuck in one place. At one point, I left it to go inside to take a shower, I had been up most of the morning cooking, and while I was in there, I seemed to smell something burning. I asked someone to have a look at the BBQ but apparently fire coming out the the bottom of the BBQ and its being enveloped in smoke is normal to whomever it was that checked it as they reported no problems. So, 15 minutes later, I came out, saw flames shouting from the bottom of the BBQ and the afore mentioned smoke problem and immediately had to turn everything off and fight my way through the smoke to get to the BBQ,

When I got there, I opened the lid, big mistake by the way, and was engulfed in flames from the entire BBQ. At this point I have to interject a public service announcement on the merits of cleaning the grease trap under the BBQ more than once in the lifetime of the BBQ. It would seem a lot of grease gets trapped in there and if some big piece of meat falls to the bottom of the BBQ and catches fire from being right on top of the burners, it tends to shed flaming pieces of itself that then fall in to the grease trap. Hence, the flaming BBQ I have mentioned.

With the gas turned off and the meat removed, it only burned for another four hours, a much shorter time than it took for the fireman to get there. I had it basically under control when they arrived and we we settling down to trying to recover what was left of Christmas dinner.

Actually, the firemen did not come and most of the meat was salvageable. And we had plenty of other things to eat. But it was an adventure and not something I will try again for a while. The spit roaster has been sitting against a post ever since then. I am not sure it was not damaged in the fire as I have not tried it since then.

We had a good time at Christmas. All the kids over plus some friends. Natalie had to work, so we tried to eat early, but that did not work out so well and ended up eating a little after they had left. It was fun though. It being Christmas and this being the south, it was hot and muggy but everyone jumped in the pool and cooled off for a while. Everyone except me as I was doing the cooking but they were all in most of the day.

Maeghan and William were spoiled again. Too many presents and too many toys. I think they might even still play with a couple them today. Most of them are just in their rooms. Fancy ornaments to decorate their walls and drawers. They don't have closets or I am sure they would be shoved in there never to be seen again. But they enjoyed it, which is the important thing.

Guess I should start rapping this up. Haven't talked a lot about the kids but they are in the other room fighting with each other so I am trying to avoid going in there. Hopefully, Nat and Adam will be back soon to take them away and I can try to get some work done. I doubt I will get any done but I can always start my computer and pretend I am working.

Have to go now, the fighting in the other room has turned violent. William appears to be crying but as he is the biggest one, I am not sure who could have taken him. Probably Maeghan as he lets her get away with hitting him and does not hit back. He is a good boy and loves his sister, even if they fight most of the time. He is just glad she lets him be part of her world.

Until next time

Talk to you later

MWNews 83

As hinted at, I am copying the email I send to Daddy the other day. Since it is addressed to him, it might contain personal information not normally shared in this blog, but as no one reads this anyway, I am sure it is pretty safe to post it.

Maybe someday I will get back to writing original material, but maybe not. Depends on whether the moon is in the sky and the worms are in the ground. Well, something like that.

Anyway, enjoy. Look for comments at the end that help explain where we are and what we are eating. But you knew that.

I am at the office and am eating my toast, but I will try to type at the same time. Not sure if the email you sent to Juanita will go through, it looks like there is an extra space in it, but my eyes are failing so I can never really be sure.

And yes, I can't see most of the time anymore. They say it is old eyes, but it is fairly harsh if you have to work on a computer all day. I can see well enough for most things, but it is all fuzzy and I have difficulty reading my screen. When I get my eyes examined, they say my vision is the same as it was before, so I am at a loss to explain why I cannot see. I might go back to contacts so I can use reading glasses. My current glasses are bifocals but I have never seen any difference. I think they just said they were bifocals so they could charge me more money.

Maeghan had her birthday last Sunday. She is seven now. She is getting bigger, not really taller, although she is over a meter tall now, but she is getting really heavy. The doctors say we need to watch that as she should not put on weight very fast because her body will not be able to cope. She is back to going to the doctor every six months now, although when they said it would change to once a year, it never did. Her surgeon has retired and her main Dr. is about to retire, so we are seeing new people now. I only met him for a couple of minutes but he seemed nice.

They are x-raying her spine every time now. They want to watch for signs of scoliosis, which she already has a little bit but they want to monitor it and make sure it is not progressing too fast. I am not sure what they will do about it if it does, but maybe there is something they can do.

I know it will upset you and it really upsets me, but I think we are seeing the beginning of the problems she is going to face. I pray that I am wrong, but I have always tried to prepare for it. I am sure it will not be as bad as I keep imagining, but we have to know she will face problems and some of them might be severe. I don't know what else to say about it, it hurts too much to face, but I am sure she will be just fine. She is still a precious little girl.

She loves swimming and will stay in the pool for hours. Not sure what she is going to do in the winter, but for now, she is in the pool almost everyday. I think the Mingara pool is heated, so we can take her down there when the weather is cold. Mingara is the local club we belong to. They have gambling and restaurants and a big swimming pool and other things to do there. They just opened a new kids area and both Maeghan and William love it in there.

William is swimming now also. He loves the pool as well. When you open the gate to let them inside, he immediately runs to the pool and jumps in. He loves to jump in and out of the pool. He is getting to be a very good swimmer. Not as polished as Maeghan, but he can beat her in a race. He still is not able to swim and come up for air and keep swimming, but he goes fast enough under the water that he can stop, take a breath and then dive back under and keep going.

He is getting big also. A head taller than Maeghan and still only four years old. He is bigger than most of the kids in his day care. He will start school next year, or maybe not. He never sits still, so we might wait another year to send him, so he has a chance to settle down. I don't think he will ever settle down and be a quiet kid, but maybe he will learn to sit still long enough to be in a classroom. He goes to day care twice a week now, so he can get used to being there. He loves it and the teachers are saying he is getting better at sitting still and listening.

Maeghan is getting her new teeth. From what we can see, she will probably need braces. The doctors told us to come to them when that happens and they can get some help for her. I don't know what that means but I assume it will some kind of special funding. Her school already gets special funding for another teacher for her, so there will be a lot of things like that that she will be eligible for. She doesn't really need the special teacher and she copes with everything as well as anyone, but you have to get these things established early so they are available if she ever needs them. It took two years for her condition to be recognized by Centrelink (the welfare office) so Juanita could get special funding for her and she could get her wheelchair. She hardly ever uses her wheelchair but she has an outing to the zoo in the next couple of weeks so she will need it then. Too much walking for her. Juanita will be allowed to go along to push her.

I turn 50 in a couple of months. We have no plans for my birthday and will probably just go out to eat or something. Maybe go somewhere for the weekend. I have to work the whole time as my co-worker has taken the whole month of April off. I can still work as long as anywhere we go has internet connections. I have a 3G modem, so anywhere there is cell phone coverage, I should be able to connect. Even if we do go somewhere, it will only be for a couple of days or something. Nothing fancy, just get away for a while.

Not that I can get away. I have a huge project at work that takes up most of my time. Lots and lots of things to do and the deadline is fast approaching. If I don't get it done before my partner leaves, then I will be doing it on my own in April. It is a major project and will determine if I have a job or not it it does not finish on time. Not that anyone has said anything, but the impact of failing will run into the millions of dollars to fix. The fact that no one can fix it except me does not seem to be a factor. It is on a system that was built in 1995 and the code we are converting is so old, no one understand how it works anymore. My recommendation was to start over instead of trying to convert, but of course, that was shot down. Having no one that has even seen the code, let alone understands it, other than me, makes getting help with the task of converting very difficult. But, we will see.

Other than Maeghan's back problems and my eyesight, everyone is healthy and well. Juanita fell a couple of months ago and her legs still hurts from that, but there is nothing anyone can really do about it, so she lives with it. William has been well with no major problems, other than he keeps hurting himself at the day care. Running into poles and falling off things mostly, but by the time we see him, he has forgotten about it. He had a nasty bruise and cut on one eye once, but that healed quickly and he was fine.

Guess now that I have finished my toast and my coffee is cold, I should finish this up. I don't have a computer anymore that can handle a skype account. I do have the Mac, which I will setup on skype. I don't remember how to do it, but it has a built in camera so it should not be too hard. I will see what I need to do and how to use it in the next couple of days. I don't think it has a built in microphone, but I am sure we have one laying around somewhere. Maeghan got a microphone for her birthday, but it does not work for some reason. We are taking it back tomorrow and getting her the Wii game that has microphones with it. She likes to sing along in the microphone, mostly her own made up songs, but all the kids that come over love to sing into her microphone she got for Christmas. That is why we got her another one, so she can sing with her friends, but as I said, it does not work.

She loves Hannah Montana by the way and keeps saying she wants to be a singer. She likes Barbie also and has all the Barbie movies. And Tinkerbell, and anything else that has fairies or mermaids or dancing or just about any of the girlie type movies that are out. She doesn't dance as much as she used to, but she sings a lot now.

I have been asked a question at work, so I will have to go look into it. Hope this fills in some of the gaps I have left by not communicating. I always say I will get to it, but never do. Kind of hard in the situation I am in but I will try harder.

Well, that was it. I hope you enjoyed it. I haven't gone back and re-read it, so I have no idea what it says. I am sure it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, or that might be the spider on your neck. The comments I promised at the beginning of this post are located here. As you can tell, there aren't any, except what I just typed, and what I just typed then, and again. You get the idea. Thats all I have to say. Be more next time. Let me know if you need help with my birthday present. I turn 39 this year, so it is a big one. Close to 40 now, so I have to slow down and pretend I am getting old. Not that you can tell to look at me. Tall, good looking, and fit as a wombat. And by wombat, I mean small, furry and can roll myself into a ball.

OK, until next time.

Talk to you later

MWNews 82

Hard to find pictures of the kids together anymore. They don't stay still long enough to get the camera. And, they don't get along that well. Most of the time, but not for very long. Brother and sister, you know.

Well, Maeghan has turned seven and William is four. Next year, they will be going to the same school. Maeghan is in second grade now. William still goes to day care twice a week. We were hoping to hold off another year to allow William to calm down, but I think he is as good as he will ever get.

William is a cute boy most of the time. He will call your name and call your name over and over again, and when you reply to him, he just says 'I love you'. Hard to be annoyed with a kid like that. It is also difficult to remember he is only four. He is so much bigger than Maeghan, you think he is the big brother. Then you hear Maeghan talk and you know she is much more mature than she looks.

Maeghan is a little princess now. Complete with all that goes with that. Cute and friendly most of the time, bossy and sassy when she doesn't get her way. A typical little girl.

We had a couple of parties for them, on their birthdays. Since it has been so long, again, I have a lot to catch up with. I won't be doing it now, so assume I probably will never do it, because we are getting ready to go out. Been getting ready all day, it is 1:00 now, but I knew, as soon as I started doing something that might take a while, they would all be ready to go. So I started this entry and now they are waiting on me.

Christmas has passed, and new years, and the family has come and gone and Juanita was over there for a while, lots of news. Guess I will just have to keep you wondering. I did send an email to Daddy that had a lot of information in it. If I can recall it, I might cut and paste it in here. Hold on a second while I look for it.

I sent it from my work email, so I would have to sign on there, send it here, and then copy and paste it. Not going to happen in the next few minutes so I guess you are stuck with this little blurb. Maybe I will open another one when I get back.

So, as a teaser, there is Maeghan news from the doctor, William news from William, and Juanita news from her parents. Not sure if I typed all that correctly, so ignore it until I can straighten it out.

Going to be going now. Lots of work to do and even more work I haven't done. I did just install Skype on this computer, so if anyone knows my name, they can find me and call. Not that I am ever here, it is Juanita's computer, but you might find her here occasionally. And, just for the fun of it, I installed the app on my iPhone. So if I start it up, I can see if anyone has tried to call me.

And just as a quick annoyance, can't go without complaining about something, I have my iPhone sitting next to the keyboard and I keep trying to use it as the mouse. Very annoying but not worth moving it.

Talk to you soon,

Later