MWNews 48

I just thought I would add a quick note. My computer went down about three weeks ago. I think it is dead but we are awaiting some kind of resurrection, so it might make it back to life in the next month or so. I am writing this from work, so I don't have a lot of pictures to chose from on my work computer. This is an old one. Fortunately, I had just made a backup of my pictures before my computer failed. Hopefully, I can restore it when I get it back if for some reason the hard drive has also failed. I will attempt to transfer them to Juanita's computer but I am not sure I can get the software installed on her computer to allow me to do that. I might be attempting that tonight.
Anyway, there is a lot of news and stuff I want to cover. I know you are all waiting on further vacation stories, but I think I have forgotten most of that, so you might be spared further recitations. William is out and about. I think he has begun exploring the neighbors houses now as he has gotten into everything in ours. Never stops moving. I think I have mentioned that before, but he NEVER stops moving. He is always looking for something new to grab or get into and you can never open the fridge or pantry door without him hearing you and crawling as fast as he can to try to climb in. Forget it if you want to go to the toilet in peace. He either banging on the door because he knows you are in there or crawling up the side of the toilet when you let him in.
His favorite place to be is in the shower. Every time he crawls by the bathroom door, he checks if you have left the shower door open and crawls in if you have. He has even learned how to slide the door, so even if you close it, he can slide it aside and get in. Now, we have to keep the bathroom door closed to keep him out of the shower. He has now broken the sliding door, so we cannot easily open or close it. We have to lift it up to do that and he has not figured out how, nor is he strong enough to do it. But I am sure he will try.
Maeghan is still the cleverest baby around. She is still amazing in everything she does. One quick story from last night. She and William were in the bath (a small blowup swimming pool we got to put in the shower since the house has no bathtub) and she was complaining that William was splashing her. I told her she was splashing William also, so she said OH and didn't complain anymore. I said she was splashing me and I was outside the shower. She tried splashing in the other direction but she was not very successful. She was still splashing out through the door and I told her she was getting me wet. She told me 'Well, don't be stupid, wait out in the hall until I am finished!'.
She is still the cheeky one.
Well, I have to go. If I get everything up and running on Juanita's computer, I will post some more tomorrow or tonight. Otherwise, we will have to see about fixing or replacing my computer in the next couple of months. With all the stuff we have upcoming until Christmas, it might not be for a while. Hopefully, it is something simple on my computer, but I am pretty sure the CPU overheated and burned itself out, which means it is probably cheaper to get a new computer than fix the old one, but we will have to see.
Until next time.
Talk to you later.

MWNews 47

The Ekka. I already went through an explanation about what it is, so we don't have to do that again. In case you forgot, this is a short version of what it is about. Think Fat Stock Show or Sydney Easter Show and you pretty much have the idea.

One good thing about the Ekka is that it is cheap. Only a few dollars to get in, unlike the Sydney show which is $30 each. Parking wasn't that bad either, again unlike the Sydney Show. We had to drive around a bit to find any parking but we eventually found a parking garage that did not have any spaces but the man directing traffic took pity on us and allowed us to park in an open space where normally you are not allowed to park. It upset the workman who were trying to fix a sign right over where we parked, but apparently, they got over it.

We took Maeghan,William, and Anna. Jarvis was supposed to go, but due to some creative scheduling by his father, he missed out. Let's just say his father picked an interesting day to take Jarvis back to his house and forget to bring him back.

William was sick. We took him to the doctor the next day. He slept for most of the day as we kept giving him Panadol. He did become lucid a few times when balloons were near and he caught a glimpse of them. I suppose I will have to go into the story of William and balloons, thought it does not really relate to the Ekka and I promised Maeghan I would make this post about her. Not that she has any idea what it says but she saw me adding the picture to it and wanted to look at all the pictures. I had to tell her I was typing and she would have to wait but she would not give in until I told her I was writing about her.

Anyway, William and balloons. For some reason, William goes crazy whenever he sees a balloon. We don't really know why, but it seems we never understand anything any of the kids do. William will get all excited and start waiving his arms and legs and squealing really excitedly when one is near. He likes you to touch him with them but even if you don't, he likes to watch others play with them. Several times during the day, we would see balloons and start squealing and carrying on about them. We had to get him one on the way home and he played with it and squealed the whole time. Now, whenever we see balloons, we have to make sure we get one for William.

That is the story of William and balloons. Back to the Ekka. We got there just after it opened. It was the first day of the show. We had gone to the Sydney show on the first day and it was really not very crowded at all. Bad luck for us, but the Ekka has kids day on the first day of the show, so it was pretty packed for most of the day. Since we stayed for the whole thing, it eventually got thinner and easier to move around, but most of the time, we had to keep a constant eye out on the kids. Maeghan has developed the habit of whenever the pram stops, she jumps out to see why we have stopped. Most of the time, you do not even know she is not there anymore until you start to push the pram and it is lighter than it was. As a side note, we now have a two baby pram so William and Maeghan can have a rest every once and a while.

We made the mistake of going in a gate that led directly into the kid's ride area. If I had known that was what was there, we would have chosen a different gate. Now, I have to go off on a tangent as a very disturbing thing happened at this point. We all know the rules that you have to suffer through, I mean enjoy, the animals before there is any mention of going to the rides. It is a universal rule and everyone follows it. Little did I know, that here in Australia, they apparently have never heard of this rule. I know they are isolated and not connected to the rest of the world, but now knowing the animal first rule seems to me to be a total lack of basic accepted behaviour. I even took the time to go ask a policeman to explain to the kids that rides do not come until after you run through, I mean take the time, to see the animals. He looked at me like I was crazy. And, of course, I got no backing from Juanita. It just doesn't seem right and even now, I am feeling a bit woozy about the whole thing. We actually went on several rides before we even saw cow dung on the rode. It was just unnerving and I had to sit down for most of it. I have a condition and I just didn't think my heart could take it.

So, first thing that happens is the kids start telling us all the things they want to ride, which, by the way, was everything. We actually made it about halfway through the rides before I was overwhelmed by everyone and relented to allow this to happen. By then, we had reached something I did not know they were doing these days. Apparently, they now have kiddie roller coasters. They look just like a real roller coaster but they just don't go as high and as fast. At the Ekka, they had this one that was a kind of train thing, I have a few pictures of it, and it went around in a circle and up and down hills.

Now, I am not sure I would have gotten on something like that when I was a sensible little kid, but these kids wanted on that as soon as they could get on it. So I gave the operator all my cash and discovered why it is so cheap to get in to the EKKA. They got a really long ride and seemed to enjoy it tremendously. Maeghan really loved it and even though Leslie got bored after the second time around, it was pretty good for them.

After that, I tried once again to move on to other things in the show but was hooted down mercilessly and had to relent to letting them ride some more. They went to a jumping castle. A really big one. It had two sections, one to play in and one that was a really big climb and slide down thing. As soon as they were let in, Leslie took off and we didn't see him again until they were finished. I am not sure where he was but Anna kept telling us he was ok. Anna wanted to climb up the big slide but we told her to wait at the bottom with Maeghan. Maeghan could not climb the rope ladder to get up to the top and she was content to stay at the bottom and jump up and down. Eventually, we told Anna she could go up to the top and slide down. After she left Maeghan, Maeghan tried to climb the ladder. She couldn't do it, but the kid that was running the ride and helping the other kids saw her and came all the way down to the bottom and helped her all the way to the top. By half-way up, Maeghan had got the hang of it and could climb by herself but the kid stayed behind her and helped anytime she was not sure what to do. He was really helpful and I wish we could have done something for him or tipped him or something.

Once Maeghan reached the top, she went over to the slide part and sat at the top. It was pretty high and she was not going to slide down by herself. Anna tried to help, but Maeghan wanted Daddy to come up and help her. I was just about to, when that same kid that was helping her before sat down with her, put her in his lap and slid down with her. She loved it. By that time, it was time for them to get off the ride. All the kids got out and were all excited about what they had been doing. It was hard to get all their shoes back on as they would not stay still. Eventually, we got them away from it and eventually, we got out of the ride section.

From then on, we just wandered around. I know there were things we did not see and things we did not do as there were whole buildings we did not even go into, but it was fun for all the kids. We got them hot dogs and chips to eat for lunch, although they were Australian hotdogs and not really fit to be called hotdogs because the sausage here is so bad. But that's a tale for another time.

Now is a good time to mention the food at the Ekka. They did not seem to have anything really good. At the Sydney Show, they have some areas that you just have to visit each time you go. One has a place where they sell some really good sausages. I didn't find a decent sausage at the entire Ekka. I am sure they were somewhere, but we didn't find them. The kids had chips, which were cold, (oh, did I mention that when I say chips, I mean French fries?) but they seemed to enjoy them. We saw and went to several petting areas where the kids could touch the animals. They did it, but they did not seem to enjoy this part of the tour.

To illustrate how lost you can get at the Ekka, we were passing the stadium at one point and I was looking for a place to sit down for a minute. The train tracks run through the area, on a bridge above you and we walked under the tracks to sit at some benches on the other side. Well, little did we know that on the the other side of the tracks were all the big kids rides. This is the area where all the usual arcade stuff is. All the rides and all the games and everything that goes with it. We knew it was somewhere and we had not really been looking for it at that time, but there it was. So, of course, we had to take the time to walk through everything there. The first thing we did was get Juanita and I a couple of dagwood dogs. Now, of course, you are thinking these are hotdogs with everything on them. You would be wrong. Over here, a dagwood dog is a corny dog. It is called something else but the name slips my mind at the moment. We got these because Juanita likes them and I decided to try them as I usually do not eat dagwood dogs when we are out. I can now tell you why as they were not the most appetizing things we have found. Juanita seemed to think they were ok, but to me they were not very good at all. Tough and chewy and with horrible hotdogs in the middle. 

Maybe my opinion was tainted by the fact that I put a ton of mustard on mine and nearly blew the top of my head off. The mustard was the hot English type mustard and it had been sitting in the sun for a while, which makes it even hotter. I nearly died. I could not breath and I could not cough and I could not make the pain go away. I eventually got it under control, but being the freak that I am, I ate a little bit more to make sure I had not just inhaled it wrong the first time. It all happened again and for the first time in my life, I had to scrape all the stuff off of my dagwood dog before I could eat the rest of it. If you know anything about hot mustard, it is not like hot peppers. You cannot convince anyone over here of that. They think hot is hot and do not know the subtle differences in flavor and heat levels. English hot mustard is more of a burning of the nasal passages instead of the usual hot burning the mouth you get from normal peppers or hot things. It attacks your nose and throat and doesn't let you breath.This was not any especially hot brand, it had just been sitting in the sun too long and it was just uneatable. But that is enough of my pain, we should get back to the reason for this post about the Ekka.

We toured the ride area. We played a few games and the kids rode the merry go round and a few other things. The kids even won a prize each. It was on a game where everyone wins a prize, but Maeghan won the biggest one. I didn't win anything, which is unusual as I have been winning big prizes the last few times we have done something like this. We did finally manage to guide the kids away from this area.

Once we left, we continued around the stadium. We were almost all the way around but stopped to get Juanita a coke. As I was standing in line, I noticed a little raised area across the path that seemed to have some tents and stuff on it. I was not sure if it was part of the show or not. We had to go a long way around to find a place where we could take the pram up. Once we were there, it did not seem like anything was still open in that area. We went all the way to the front of it and found a sort of kids show going on. It turns out this was a kids show area and we were in time for the last couple of acts for the day. We sat in the back, but as soon as we sat down, the two kids who were up front, (not really kids but young people) were doing a singing and dancing act. The called themselves the bush rock and rangers and were doing jokes and dances and singing to rock songs they had apparently made up or written themselves.

Well, in case you have forgotten, Maeghan is just crazy for the dancing. She does it all the time and whenever she hears music, she wants to go and dance to it. We made our way up to the front and sat down with the other kids on the front row. They were just going to start a dance contest and I knew Maeghan would want to do that. Not if she knew it was a dance contest but she always loves to dance. When it started, a lot of other kids got up and started dancing in the front. Maeghan is a solo act and whenever there are other kids dancing, she will generally just watch. It takes her a while to join in. That is what happened this time. All the other kids were dancing and she was just standing there until the very end. She finally started dancing but by the then the contest was over and they stopped playing music.

The people doing the act went through a few more jokes and stuff and then came their finaly. The guy got a guitar and the lady sort of just introduced herself and then they went into a really rocking number that they had apparently wrote themselves. I know the words were cute but I can't remember them right now. Maeghan was ready this time. She started dancing immediately.

I have tried to describe Maeghan's dancing before. Other than saying it is really cute and she is really good at it, you just have to see her to understand. I just cannot do it justice. She has gotten to the point where she actually dances to the music and does things that keep in time with the beat and performs actions that we have no idea where she has ever seen it before. She raises her arms and twirls around and twists her body and bends her knees and twists down low. She will sometimes get down on one or both knees and dance from there and then get back up and dance some more. Her favorite thing is to twirl around and jump up and down and through it all, she keeps falling down and getting back up and keeping to the music all the time. She is really, really good at it. It makes me cry just thinking about it. We have no idea where all this comes from, but Maeghan loves to dance.

Other people were all noticing her at this point. You could see people in the back pointing at her and talking about her. The guy with the guitar noticed she was getting all the attention and he came over and got down on his knees and played his guitar in front of her while she danced. At first, Maeghan did not like this and grabbed my leg but after a few moments, she got used to it and started dancing again. It was all just wonderful. Afterwards, several people came up to me and told us what a good dancer she was and how cute she was. It is just amazing and probably just something we will have to remember as she will never do her really good dancing when I have the movie camera out. We just cannot get it on film. But, we will keep trying.

After this show, another group of people came up to do a show. They were from the Australia Zoo. In case you do not know, the Australia Zoo is Steve Irwin's zoo. It is near Brisbane and we have been by it several times. We always wanted to go there. If you haven't heard, Steve Irwin was recently killed by a stingray. I don't know if it is a big deal anywhere else, but over here, they have been running tributes to him almost constantly. Not that he was that popular over here. A lot of Australians did not like him. They thought he gave a bad impression of Australians and they thought he was a show off. Australians are not big on people who are show offs. Now that he has died, of course, everyone says they loved him but I remember all the times before when they were saying they wish he would go away. He was just not that popular over here. The government even tried to name a train after him. The first passenger train service that was to go from South Australia to the Norther Territory. But, most of the people protested and they eventually called it something else. I bet they are wishing they had named it after him.

Anyway, the people from the zoo were there to show some animals and do some kind of thing where they asked the kids questions and make fun of their answers. They asked for volunteers from the audience and I told Anna to go up and do it. She did but when Maeghan and Leslie saw her go up there, they decided they wanted to go too. By then, they had all the volunteers they wanted, but Leslie and Maeghan just stood around near the lady while she asked the other kids questions.

The lady would hold the microphone next the kid talking and ask them their name and age and other things. Then the guy would ask them an animal question, like what sound does a certain animal make or what kind of animal is he describing. Not very hard questions but most of the kids would need hints or help with getting the answers. There were none up there as young as Maeghan and Leslie and eventually, Leslie wandered away and didn't stay next to the lady. Maeghan stayed next to her the whole time and they went through about eight or nine kids before they were finished.

After she had done all the kids in the line, she noticed that Maeghan was still standing there. She asked the guy if they had time for one more question. He said no, jokingly, but she persuaded him. She asked Maeghan what her name was and Maeghan said Maeghan. She then asked how old she was and Maeghan seemed hesitate, so Juanita told them three. They seemed amazed by this as they did not think she was that old. The guy then asked her what animal goes MOO. Maeghan looked at him like he was an idiot and said 'a cow'. Well, they were really amazed by this. They had no idea she was going to be able to answer this. The lady was going to give her a hint but when she said a cow, her jaw just dropped. She asked the crowd for a round of applause for little Maeghan and how good she was. They gave Maeghan a little rubber crocodile as a prize and they asked her if she knew what it was. She said ' a crocodile' and they were amazed again. At the end of the show, they asked everyone for a round of applause for all the kids and especially for their little dancer, Maeghan. It was just great. Maeghan did not notice, she just ran over to me and showed me her crocodile. But, everyone else was applauding for her.

The show ended at that point and we left. It was just really amazing and I had to tell everyone about it. It was great. After that, we went around to some other exhibits and saw a lot of other things. We were back near the barns and there was a lot of cow poop around. Maeghan and Anna kept telling us to watch for the cow poop and not to step in it.

When we were leaving, I was determined to find some specialty food that you could only get at the Ekka. Near were we had entered the show, there was an international food section and we stopped in there. Nothing really great was there but I had a tortilla type thing that had a garlic sauce and goulash on it. It was neither garlic sauce or goulash, but is was not bad, even if it was cold when I got around to eating it. Juanita had a big baked potato, one with everything on it including coleslaw. The kids wanted McDonalds and I told them we would get it when we left, although they fell asleep as soon as we got in the car and did not wake up until the next morning.

While we were eating, they had an amateur belly dancing show on the stage near us. I mention it, not because the show was any good, but because Maeghan started dancing again. Not like before, but enough so that several people noticed, including the dancers. She was tired though and Leslie was asleep in her spot in the pram, so we had to go and didn't stay for the end of the show.

Well, that was our trip to the Ekka. I am sure it is way too long and way too boring, but since this is the second time I have written it up, I need to make sure I back this one up before I try to post it. In all, it was well worth it. We all had fun and Maeghan still plays with her crocodile. I have more to post on the vacation but it will have to wait. This post is just exceedingly long. So, until next time.

Talk to you later
 

MWNews 46

I wrote a large entry into this the other day. I spent about two hours on it. Then, I went to publish it and my program got a fatal error. No where could I find what I had typed. So, the lesson here is, watch what you say, no one may be listening.

Got some more vacation stuff. I have about three more posts about our vacation. Then we can move on to the latest news. Which, since William has learned to crawl, involves typing two words and then telling William, NO. He is now getting into everything and most of our time is spent chasing him around the house making sure he is not pulling something on top of himself.

We forget, but we did not have this with Maeghan. She didn't crawl around much, until she learned to frog hop and even then, she did not go lots of places where she could no longer see us. She didn't start walking until she was around two, so we have not had to deal with a really mobile child in a while. He is constantly in motion and headed somewhere. We have the toys in a somewhat neat pile in the lounge room. Maeghan gets them out and spreads them around most days, but it never really gets too bad. Since we try to put them back in their piles most days, they are sitting there each morning when William begins wandering.

He has learned to climb up on top of the toys he doesn't play with and get to the little toys he likes to carry around. There is a picture of Maeghan in her little home-made rocking horse. I mention it because we still have it and William uses that to climb up to get the blocks. They are in a box behind the rocking horse. We put them there so William will not be able to get to the box and throw all of them around. He has figured out that he can climb in up through the rocking horse, (it would take too much explanation to tell you how this is done), and reach back to the blocks.

I mention all this as he is right now over by the toys doing just that. Climbing over the rocking horse to get to the blocks. He seems to have given up on that this time and has become interested in the swinging monkeys on the little castle thing.

But this post was to be about the vacation and I will get back to that shortly. It is mostly about Maeghan, so I thought I would get a few things in about William first, but I think I am done with that now, so I can proceed with the adventures. Although, William has been up for about 30 minutes now and he will be wanting someone to pay attention to him soon. I just got up to get a cup of coffee, and he noticed that I was in the room and started whining for me. But I ignored it, you have to be strong sometimes. He lost interest as soon as I sat back down and is now trying to get to one of Maeghan's toys that she does not let him play with when she is around. The both want to play with my new xbox controller. It is white and I suppose they are tired of playing with the old black ones and everytime I have the new one out, both of them are trying to get to it and play with it. Probably because they want to be like Daddy, but mostly because they just don't want you paying any attention to anything but them. By the way, typing Daddy and having it refer to me is really strange. Not something I have ever really thought about but I usually do not type Daddy, so I suppose it has not come up before.

The vacation. Right, back to that. Not that you would know it, but we just had to take a30 minute break for William. He is getting lonely now and wants all the attention. No one else is awake yet, so I had to go play with him. Not that he wants someone to pay with him, he just wants to be held so he can reach things that are higher than he can normally reach. Have I mentioned that he is constantly in motion. He will not stay still for any time. As soon as you pick him up, his head is going, he is looking around and trying to reach anything he can see. It is almost impossible to hold him anymore. He is too (ok, I have tried several words in this place and I cannot spell any of them, so you are going to have to fill in your own words that basically means he moves around too much as I cannot continue to try to spell things I cannot spell) fill in the blank.
While in Brisbane, (vacation talk), we went to the EKKA or I should say 'The Ekka'. I have no idea what EKKA stands for not do I know why it is called 'The Ekka', but if you don't know what that is, think Fat Stock Show or Sydney Easter Show and you pretty much have the idea.

The Ekka is kind of hard to see. It is not laid out very well and it spreads across several places that I am not entirely sure are there when the Ekka is not in town. I know we never went down to that area when we lived there but when the Ekka comes to town, this whole area is converted to a show. There are buildings and livestock areas and all sorts of things that I did not know were there. The problem is, since it is not designed as an exhibition area, it makes it hard to find anything or no where you are while you are there. I am certain we did not visit everything, and we were there from the time they opened to the time they closed. We spent a lot of time backtracking and going through things we had already been through.

I have to go now. William is throwing a fit and wants breakfast. I cannot do both, so I will get back to this later, probably today, so I can tell you more about some of the things Maeghan did during the Ekka. Until then.

Talk to you later 

MWNews 45

Not a lot happened in the last two days. William started walking and Maeghan cooks her own dinner, but they both remain humble about it and do not try to lord it over anyone.

Actually, William cannot walk yet. He has discovered that he can crawl around and get into things now. In the past, he would either roll around or call out to someone to pick him up. Now, since he learned how to crawl on our vacation, he can get into just about anything he wants.

He has found Maeghan's old castle/play thing. This is the toy I talked about a long time ago when she was in the hospital and there was this toy/castle thing she really liked and we were looking for one for her. Of course, you remember that. But, even if you do not, we still have it here and Maeghan still likes to sit in it and play. William has found out how to get in and out of it.

It has a little arch on one side and a door on the other. He can crawl through the arch or even open the door and let himself in. Now, anytime you put him on the floor, that is where he heads. He crawls inside and plays with any toys that are in there. It is just big enough for him to stretch out across it without touching any side and he will spin himself around in there and play with each little section. Each side of it has a different toy on it, from a little mirror to things you can bend and play with. He is quite happy to lay in there and play with each thing or play with any balls that are in there with him. He will roll to one side of it so he can open the door and look out at me sitting at my computer. He likes to do that and then laughs when I see him doing it.

He and Maeghan get along great. He still thinks Maeghan is the greatest thing ever. It does not matter where she is or what he is doing, if Maeghan makes a noise or walks into the room, he stops and stares at her and if she acknowledges him in anyway, he starts laughing his little laugh. Now that he has teeth on both the top and bottom, his smile is really cute. I have some pictures of it that I will be sending, but for now, he is still the cute little baby. A lot more noisy than Maeghan ever was, but only when he wants something, like food or a toy or to be picked up or anytime he feels he is not getting the attention he deserves. He is loud and insistant when that happens.

He will still not sleep the night in his own bed. He has gotten used to sleeping with Mommy while she was in Brisbane and now wakes up sometime in the night so he can be brought into bed with her. I think he might go back to sleep like he used to if I take him out and feed him until he falls asleep, but lately, I have had to work during the night, so I do not have the time to do that.

Ok, I have mentioned work and I have mentioned vacation, and I have even mentioned Brisbane, all of which have different stories to tell, but I probably only have time for one or two of them, so the question is, which one. I suppose it will have to be vacation as we had a wonderful time, for most of it, and I am sure since we cannot show you all the pictures, there are over two hundred of them, I can at least tell you everything we did. Kind of like a slide show with words. The best part is you cannot skip ahead as I might say something really interesting at anytime and you cannot afford to miss anything as the interesting parts are so few and far between. It is always good to have a captive audience.

Let's see, I told you about some of the trip up there. We spent three days in Airlie Beach/Whitsundays/Great Barrier Reef. I would like to say the food was really good there, but we did not eat at anything that served really good food and we ate at a couple of places that were bad. So, talking about food is out of the question.

The first day we were there, they had a nice little market along the beach. It was interesting because it was not the usual stuff you see at these types of things. A lot of it was the same, but it did not repeat itself over and over again, where every third stall sold the same things as the previous ones. This one had a lot of unique stuff. We did, however, disturb some couple in a van when we parked, but that is another story.

The last picture, from the previous post, was of the beach at Airlie Beach. It was vey nice, with the pathway and market just along the trees you can see along the beach. The shops and restaurants are just beyond that. They also have a little inland pool around there that Maeghan swam in. I have a picure of William there on the grass when we was first trying to crawl. Not that you can see it in the picture, but he was up on his hands and knees and was rocking back and forth trying to get going. He has since leared how to do this, but back then, it was his first time.

All the islands and water were very pretty around there. Again, I have some pictures I can send, but they do not have anyone in them and if I am not there to explain what you are looking at, they kind of lose their appeal. We can move on from there, but I might go back to it every once and a while.

William is nearly impossible to hold now. He is always in motion trying to grap things and look around for something new to look at or grab. He weighs 11 kilos and is really strong, so you cannot do anything but try to maintain your grip on him when you are holding him. He will just not stay still for any length of time. You end up having to put him down just so he will stop squirming. Juanita was just now complaining about him getting into everything here at the computers, so she put him on the floor. He is under my chair now, so I cannot move until he moves away.

On the way back from Airlie Beach, we tried to visit some of the places we drove past on the way up. There are several little tourist towns along the way and we spent several hours each day looking at stuff. We took our time coming back, not only because we wanted to see everything we could but because we were not in a hurry to get back to stay with Angela. That is who we stayed with while we were in Brisbane and suffice it to say, it was not the most pleasant environment. With all the kids and all the constant fighting and complaining, it was hard to just relax. And the kids were making noise too. Maeghan loved it. She loved playing with Jarvis all the time and he seemed to like playing with her. Anna is a little too big for Maeghan and the other kids are her siz but they are too young for her to play with yet. Shayla, Angela's youngest, is a real bully. She has leared to hit and push and be obnoxious with anyone her size and Maeghan is not used to that at all. So Maeghan lived in terror anytime Shayla was around. But Maeghan loved playing with all the kids all the time. She picked up a couple of bad habits, like shrieking and crying whenever she does not get her way, but I think she is already over most of that since we have returned.

William enjoyed watching all the kids all the time. He would just sit and watch them perform for him. He liked to get on the floor and roll around with them, but they there were too many small toys and things there to do it without someone supervising him. Plus, he was sick for most of the trip, as we all were, so he would get really miserable at times. He got so bad one day, before we left Brisbane on our drive, that we took him to the hospital. That is where you go when you do not have a local doctor. The doctors there just said to keep giving him panadol and if he got really worse, to give him anitbiotics, but they said the antibiotics would probably not work and would probably make him worse, so we never go around to getting the prescription. He was getting better by the time we started the drive, so it was not too bad.

Maeghan and I were sick with colds for most of the trip. We are still getting over it, but Juanita did not get sick until the last day and is still pretty bad now. It is ok during the day, but starts to hit you at night and before you go to bed. I got so bad, and so has Juanita, that I could not really speak at night or in the morning. And the cough that goes along with it was hard on Maeghan and all of us. Juanita still has it, but we are all doing ok now.

I guess more of the trip news and the other stuff I was going to talk about will have to wait. Juanita is waiting for me to take a shower so we can go do the shopping. It is Thursday and we always do the shopping on Thursdays. As soon as I get through with my meetings normally, but this morning I had meetings from 2 in the morning until about 9, so she has had to wait extra long while I typed this. William has started to get cranky and I have no idea where Maeghan is, so I suppose I have to go.

As you can see, I am trying to type more often, but as this is only two times, it hardly presents a trend. Maybe it will be, mostly because I have a lot of pictures I want to put in here, but if not, I can always email the pictures. I am sure you will enjoy them.

Until next time, talk to you later. 

MWNews 44

Maeghan is speaking Spanish now. We don't really know what she is saying, but that does not seem to matter as she speaks very slow and very loud so we can understand her. She learned Spanish by watching every episode of Dora ever made 400 times. For those of you who have not been in contact with any humans younger than 10, Dora is Dora the Explorer, but if you did not know that, then the speaking Spanish part probably went over your head anyway.

We have just returned from vacation in Queensland. That is north of here, where Brisbane is but we only spent a few days in Brisbane. We bought a car DVD player for Maeghan and William to watch on the long drives. I have copied or purchased most of the episodes of Dora and that is what Maeghan watched, all the time, over and over again. Each episode is about 30 minutes long and there are at least 30 of them, but I am pretty sure, after listening to them while driving, I can recite most of the dialogue to you verbatim. Not that I picked up any Spanish along the way.

A lot of times, Maeghan will be talking about something and then start speaking Spanish in the middle of her conversation. It doesn't really mean she is having a conversation with anyone, she can have whole dialogues by herself, but it is kind of strange if you are not really following along that closely in the first place and she suddenly interjects Spanish words into what she is saying. Makes you think you have missed something really important in her life and she has just passed you by on the evolutionary scale.

Speaking of vacations, yes, it has been a really long time since I updated anyone on this here blog thing. I don't really have any excuses for it other than anytime I thought about doing it, something else would come up and I would not have the time. It takes a couple of hours to come of with all this witty dialogue and constant repartee. And there is the added burden of having no idea how to spell repartee, so I either have to stare at it for a long time and decide if it is worth my time to look it up or just ignore it and move on. As you can tell, moving on won this time. I think maybe writing in this was kind of good for me while I was in the family way. Not that I wrote that often back then, but it was certainly more often that I have been lately. Therapeutic is the word I think I am looking for, but after staring at that for a long time, the word itself probably has no meaning at all and I just made it up. Now that I am recovered, except for those long painful memories of the labor, I don't seem to have the urgency to keep this thing going and keep everyone informed. But, as you can tell, I am back and hopefully, as I have said many, many times, this time will be different.

More vacation thoughts. This time, speaking of the recent trip we attempted. We decided a while back that instead of going to Tassie for Christmas, we would take a vacation together. Really, our first one that was not the result of some illness or other medical emergency. We decided we would try to visit parts of Australia that we had not seen before. In my case, that would be almost anywhere, but we have had some trips through the country that can be counted as seeing some of the country. This time, we thought we might stop at some of these towns and places to see what it is there is to see.

We decided on going north to Cairns. That was our plan for many months, but when it got down to actually planning that trip, that is 28 hours of constant driving just to get there and does not include any stops along the way to see anything. Cairns, by the way, is in far north Queensland. Not the very top of Queensland, that is still another days drive farther north, but it is about the largest city in that direction and once you pass there, there are not a lot of real roads or pathways to travel on to go any farther. There is Cape York, at the very top of Australia, but there is not really anything there to see and it is a long drive through a lot of nothing to get there. We will probably never make it that far north in Queensland.

So with a trip all the way to Cairns out of the picture, we decided to only go about two thirds of the way there. We planned a weeks worth of traveling, one way, to get to and see the places along the coast of Queensland. Not that most Americans will have any idea where any of these places are or what their meaning is, but I will mention a few of the more prominent ones in the hope that it will at least sound familiar.

Our first stop was Hervey Bay, pronounced for some unknown reason as Harvey Bay but I have learned not to ask for explanations on why things are pronounce the way they are. This is significant because Hervey Bay is opposite Frazier Island. Frazier Island, as I am sure we all know, is the largest island on the world made completely of sand. You might wonder why anyone or anything would want to make that claim but just so you know, this island is 100 miles long and about 30 wide. It has its own rivers and lakes and forests. All on an island that is made completely of sand. There are no rocks, no outcroppings of boulders, just sand. And trees grow on it. Lots of them. It is apparently the only place on earth that has a forest growing in sand. Anyway, look it up on the internet. It is very interesting.

Having said all that, we did not actually visit Frazier Island. We could see it from our cabin and we wanted to go to see it while we were there, but the trip we wanted to take was all booked and we did not find another to go on with short notice. You cannot drive to Frazier Island and even if you take the ferry, only four wheel drive cars are allowed there. Whale watching is also a big tourist attraction there but we didn't make that either. All in all, we did not find the real attraction of the Hervey bay area. Granted, we were only there for one day and we did drive the tourist drive along the beach, it was very beautiful but then again, it is always beautiful driving along the coast, but we did not do any of the tourist things while we were there. Maybe next time.

Out next stop was Rockhampton. Cowtown to all the locals as this is supposed to be the beef center of Australia. I am not sure how it can be called the beef center as it is on the east coast of Australia and there are a lot of areas where I would think there is more beef produced, but that is what it is called. You can tell they take is seriously as most of the buildings have a statue of a cow sitting out front or on top of the buildings. We were told that there was not a lot to see there unless you drove down to the coast, about thirty minutes away, so we did not plan a lot of activities in Rockhampton itself. One the only full day we had there, we did drive down to the coast towns and see all the tourist sights. It was very nice, except it was windy and looking like rain all day, but it was worth the trip. We did find out, too late, that there are a lot of things to see and do in Rockhampton and we never got to do any of them. Once again, maybe next time.

Our last stop, and the one we spent the most time at was Airlie Beach. That will probably mean very little to almost everyone, although everyone we met or talked to seemed to know where and what this place was (I had never heard of it before this trip). But, for a more familiar name that maybe even isolated Americans will have heard of is the Whitsundays. This is a group of 74 islands that are at the beginning of the Great Barrier Reef. The reef stretches north from there, but most people go to the Whitsundays to see it. Some the islands are Hayman Island, a very, very expensive place, Hamilton Island, it has its own airport, and many, many others. You might have heard of Hayman and Hamilton Islands. We did not go to either of these but we did take a day trip around the islands and stopped on several. I do not recall the names, although one was Whitehaven where we had a BBQ. They did snorkeling from the boat at one spot but neither Juanita or I were game enough, or strong enough swimmers, to try it. Juanita did take Maeghan out in the glass bottom raft so they could see reef from that perspective. I stayed on the boat with William as I seemed to have gotten seasick on the hour long trip out to this spot. I got over it and it did not occur again, but for a while, I was a bit queasy. By the time we had left that area and headed to our next stop, I was alright.

Next up was a bush hike. This time, I was to take Maeghan on the bush walk and leave Juanita and William behind. If I had thought about it, we might have just stayed on the beach and not made the climb, but I was foolish and went anyway. We were told it was a brief, easy 15 minute walk to a lookout where you could look at the beaches far below. Now, any sane person would have figured out that if you are starting at sea level and you are going to a place where there is a view of the beaches from a great height, there was going to be some climbing involved. But I took there 15 minute, easy walk speech to heart and headed out with Maeghan. To be fair, it was only about a kilometer in distance and a lot of it was a gradual climb, but the first hundred yards or so are a steep set of steps that are very uneven and very irregular so that Maeghan was unable to navigate them herself and I ended up having to carry her up them. She did manage to walk about half the way up by herself, but our pace was so slow, that we were still climbing while most of the group had already passed us on their way back. When it became clear that we were one of the last ones left on the climb, I picked Maeghan up and carried her the rest of the way there.

Once there, it turned out there was a little wooded platform that you could stand on and take in the views. I won't go into the Vietnam family that was on the same cruise we were on and the problems they had and were causing the entire time, but suffice it say that there were about 15 of them and they had taken up residence on the platform and were not about to move for anyone. I left Maeghan at the steps up to the platform and pushed my way through to get some really good pictures, pictures that I thought were not going to be worth it at that point as I was totally exhausted from making the climb carrying Maeghan, but after seeing them on my computer, they are well worth it and I wished Juanita could have been there to share it with me. I did take a picture of Maeghan at the top, but we might as well have been anywhere as there was no way to put her in a position to get her and the scenery into the same picture, due the afore mentioned Vietnamese family.

I decided we should probably head back as I did not know how long it would take at Maeghan pace and we and the Vietnam people were the last ones left at the top. I found out right away that going down was going to be harded than going up and we were almost immediately passed by the family and were the last ones. So, I picked up Maeghan and carried her down the twisting and winding trail and then down the treacherous steps back to the beach. To be real honest, I did not think there was anyway I was going to make it and I thought they would have to come up and help me with Maeghan, but I made it and did it with no ones help and I am really proud of Maeghan for not complaining or making a fuss for the entire trip. She kept telling me she could do it and she could walk but I was worried we would take too long getting back, so I kept carrying her. We made it back and it turned out that they were just starting to load the first people into the raft and take them back to the boat, so we actually had a little more time than I thought, but we were in the second raft back and other than running aground on the way back to deeper water, the tide had gone out while we had been climbing, and being totally exhausted when I returned, it was well worth the effort. The only regret being not being able to share it with William and Juanita.

Our last stop was a BBQ on the beach on the white sand islands. It was really nice and we have a lot of pictures of the whole trip. The water was really cold but that did not stop Juanita and Maeghan from getting in it and getting wet. Juanita even put William in the water. He did not like it at all but eventually got used to it and might have had a little fun. He was scared of the waves as this was his first time in the ocean, but I think he will get used to it. Maeghan was the same way and now she loves the water and the beach.

It took about two hours to return to where we started from and we were totally exhausted by then, but all in all, it was well worth it. I can see this place as a regular place we would like to visit, although in the future, we will probably fly there as it is both cheaper and less tiring to do that and you do not really need a car while you are there.

I can see this entry has gone on for a very long time. I did not mean it to be a trip report and I have a lot of other things to write about. William is now beginning to have a definite personality and there are a lot of things I can say about him. He is just now starting to crawl. He has learned peoples names and knows who you are talking about when you say look at someone. He is very ticklish and has a really funny laugh. And, he is so big now. Maybe I am just used to Maeghan and how she was and still is, but he is big. Big arms, big legs, big belly and he weighs almost as much as Maeghan. Only a kilo difference between the two of them. It makes Maeghan feel very light when you pick up one of them and then the other. It is a reminder of how small Maeghan really is and it brings up some issues that we are going to have to face with Maeghan, but I will leave that until it actually comes to pass and we have to deal with it then.

Maeghan can do a lot of things for herself now, too. She has her little step that we keep in the bathroom so she can get on and off the potty by herself. She is really proud of herself when she does that and you should see how big she smiles when we tell her how big and clever she is. She count and say her ABCs without any errors now and she gets most of the songs she sings right now. No more messing up with the lyrics or anything. She can ever recite whole books by herself. I don't think she is actually reading them, but she can look at her books and tell you what they say on each page. It is probably from having them read to her so many times, but she does this on her own now and sits and reads to herself all the time. She is really smart. I don't know if it so amazing because she is so small and does not look like she should be able to figure things out or she is just normal and all kids are like her. She is still an amazement every day with the things she says and does. Just truly amazing.

I will have to go now, but as I keep saying, there is more to come. We still have the trip back to cover and I have all the things William and Maeghan are doing. I will get them into this forum as fast as I can. I hope there are still people reading this and have not given up on any new additions.

Until next time, talk to you later.

MWNews 43

Ok, I have a little more time this morning. It is 1:30 in the morning and I am up working, but I have a little more time.

I told you William had a new tooth. He has also started talking all the time. He doesn't say anything, but makes noises all the time. He likes saying bub bub bub and dad dad dad, or just makes noise all the time. he is alos trying to get moving all the time. He gets up on his knees and trys to move forward by kicking his legs. He can roll over by himself. He rolled off the bed the other day, so now we have to watch him all the time. He hasn't quite got the knack of sleeping all night, but he only wakes up once and then he wakes up for good around 5 in the morning.

He is still big, or big in comparison to Maeghan. He weighs 9 kilos and Maeghan only weighs 11, so he is catching up pretty quick. He had some more shots the other day. I don't know what these are for but it was his six month shots, I think. He goes to the doctor tomorrow, or today since it is so early in the morning. Just for a six month checkup. There is nothing wrong with him but he has to be checked to be eligible for healthcare.

Maeghan went to the doctor to be measured for new splints yesterday. She is not happy about it as she has not been wearing her old ones for a few days. It will take five weeks for them to make the new ones, so maybe she will have some more time when she doesn't have to wear them. Although, they did put some new padding and some new velcro on her old ones, so I suppose she is expected to wear them all the time.

She was unhappy yesterday so we bought her some new shoes. Actually, she had had an accident and made her shoes wet and she needed some more anyway, so we got her some black dress shoes. That made her really happy. She likes new shoes. She says she can run fast now. They are black with a velcro strap across them that has a purple butterfly on it. They are purple on the inside also. We told her that they were purple, one of her favorite colors. She held up her finger to us and said, I think they are black mommy. It was cute.

Speaking of cute, I have a list of a few things she has done that were really, really cute but have never written about them. These happened over the last few months but I wrote them down so I could pass them on.

Once, we were going somewhere, I forget where and we had just gotten in the car. She usually asks for her cup on water when we get in. She has a couple of cups with lids on them so she does not spill them. (I know I have heard of people who do not go anywhere without a cup of water but I just can't think of anyone who comes to mind immediately.) When we gave her her cup of water, she took a drink and told us it was not cold water. (She has to have cold water, another trait she seems to have gotten from someone in the family.) We told her we did not have any cold water and she was unhappy about it but didn't say anything else immediately.

About five minutes later, she had started singing songs. She knows about thirty different songs and she likes to sing them in the car. She was busy singing along when we heard her start one of her own made up songs. I don't know what the first part of the song was but her big finish was

I have my water
But I am not upset
Because my water is not cold

I know it does not really read very funny, but we thought it was hilarious. We started laughing all the way to where ever it was we were going. She had to keep asking us what was so funny but she did not understand when we said it was her.

After that, she started singing about everything that was going on in her life. That is her new thing to do, or it was, she hasn't done it in a while. She would make up songs about whatever was going on or whatever people were saying around her. You would be half listening to her and then hear her say something or sing something about what had happened several minutes ago. she really strings out the last words of her song and then looks at you and bows. If you start clapping, she will continue to bow and say thank you very much. Of course, that lets her know you are listening so she starts hamming it up and doing all kinds of things and then bowing when she is finished, like she has put on a great show. Which she has, but she seems to know that she can do anything and get applause for it.

Another thing she said the other day was when we were driving through the Entrance, that is a town near where we live. I think I have mentioned it before. It is where they feed the pelicans. Anyway, when you go across the bridge over the lake, you can see the ocean and the beach from there. She always wants to go to the beach so when we were going over the bridge, she said lets go to the beach. I didn't say anything but after we had crossed and were going down the road, she tried to get my attention. She said daddy, daddy and I said yes Maeghan, another game we play all the time but this time she had a question for me. She said, I was just wondering, does this car turn around. She wanted to turn around and go back to the beach. Again, this doesn't read as well as it sounded but I had to pull over I was laughing so much. It was so cute.

There are all sorts of things she says and does that are so cute. I guess she is like all other kids but she does keep us laughing and entertained all the time. She absolute loves to dance and sing. She does it all the time. And not just simple moving around dances but some really complicated dances where she will bend her knees and do the twist and rock back and forth and spin around and wave her arms and just generally dance to the music. Sometimes, she does not even need music to dance, she just makes up her own songs and dances to them.

A few times, when we took her dancing at the club, the dance floor was too crowded for her to do most of her dances, so I had forgotten how complicated and inspired some of her dances can be. But, the last time we went, there was no one on the dance floor and she really put on a show. She was spinning and jumping and waving her arms all around. She really was having a good time and maybe I am biased about it, but she is really good at it. She seems to actually dance to the music and not just move around while the music is playing. Her dances are coordinated to the music and while you can see some of the things she does she has copied from other people or been taught in class, but most of them are things she could not possibly have seen before and she is just making them up. And, sometimes, she will sing along with the song. I don't know if she has heard them before or not, but she seems to know the words to a lot of songs. Maybe she hears them in the car with her mother, but some of them are not played on the radio anymore and she still knows the words. She gets excited when a song comes on that she knows and can dance to. It is just a really fun and special thing to do when we take her to the club so she can dance. Yesterday, when we were going to my work and she was going to the doctor, we had to pass by the club on the way. She had just asked where we were going and I told her to my work. As we passed the club, she said there it is and kept saying pull in, pull in, you are passing it. It took a minute for me to realise what she was saying and when I pointed out to her that that was the club and not work, she said, 'yes it is' and I said 'no it isn't' so she said 'oh, but we could go to the club instead'. Another really cute thing to say and she knew it because she laughed when she said it.

In other news, I am doing fine. No problems, although my scar has started itching and sometimes hurting. Not a lot, but I am aware it is there all the time. I suppose it will go away eventually, but it has been a while and I might have to mention it to a doctor at some point.

Both Juanita and I are on diets again. We are trying to lose 50 kilos each, by Christmas. Not really possible but we have been on it for two weeks and hope to stay on it for the next year or so. We are in the new house and we only have to cook for ourselves, so it makes it easier. Maeghan is eating nothing but junk food all the time and we are trying to think of ways to sneak vegetables into her. She likes rice and I can usually hide things in the rice but we are not eating rice right now, so I have trouble making a small portion of rice just for her. We bought some pre-packaged rice dinners but she does not seem to like those so we have to find something else. We are not eating bread either but we have to keep some on hand because Maeghan likes toasted cheese sandwiches.

Michael and Natalie and Adam are living downstairs. We have to buy Michaels food but he is cooking it for himself. So far, it has not been too bad. Maeghan is always wanting to go downstairs. Even when we have dinner, she wants to go downstairs and she will tell us she is not hungry and doesn't want to eat just so she can go down there. We have to make her sit at the table and eat with us.

Michael is still going to school, sometimes. He is in the last semester of his senior year. I don't know what classed he takes or what he is required to do but he does seem to go most of the time. He has to ride the bus from here to his old school. According to him, the earliest bus does not make it to his school on time, so he misses first period. Apparently, the school has said that is ok. He had some work experience for a couple of weeks where he had to go to a shop and work each day instead of going to school.

Natalie and Adam pay rent to us, if you can call it that. It is not very much but we do not have to pay for their food anymore, nor cook it for them, so it seems to work out ok. Neither has looked for a job but they are applying for rent assistance so maybe they can pay a little more if they get it.

I got a new smoker. They have never sold the old smoker type I had in America over here in Australia. I have been looking for one for a long time. Finally, they have a small one for sale, at least they did. I have not seen them in stores lately so maybe no one bought them and they discontinued them. But I bought one. I bought it several months ago but Juanita said I had to wait until my birthday to take it out of the box and then we were moving so I decided to wait until after we moved to put it together. It is about half the size of my other one in America. It seems to be designed well as it has the smoke stack in the right place and it has several baffles to control the temperature. It even came with a thermometer with degress in Farenheight. It must be made in America but it is a local store brand.

You cannot get the right kind of charcoal over here, only cheap stuff that you should really not be cooking with. I am going to look for a good wood supply but you cannot get real cooking wood either. They do sell the right kind of charcoal at the place where I bought the smoker but it is really expensive for a very small bag that would not even last one cooking session. I did put some of the cheap charcoal in it to season it before I cook. The charcoal does not get to a very high temperature. I had to put some really wet wood in to get it up to cooking temperature and then it only went halfway. I assume when I get the right wood, it will get hotter, but I will have to wait and see. I did see that it was not sealed very well. It leaked smoke from several places where it should not. Mostly around the door, which you would expect, but a lot around the smoke stack where it joins the smoker. The fire box did not leak at all, which is good, but it seems to have sealed the baffles when it has heated up. I will have to take a hammer to it to make them move back into cooking position. I had them wide open when I was testing it. Maybe by this weekend, I will have it ready to cook something, although I have not really found anything I can smoke yet. They do not really have the right kind of ribs over here. They have what they call American style ribs, but they are really small and appear to have been cut down from the whole rib we get in America. I asked about a brisket and they said I could get one but I am not sure how long it will take nor how much it will cost. I will probably just smoke some of the small ribs but since we are on a diet, we cannot have the sauce so I do not know if I really want to do that. Maybe a chicken or something before I move on to real BBQ food.

Well, I suppose I should be going now. I have a meeting in an hour, so I need to get something to eat before then. I haven't really talked about everything that has happened since Christmas but since I have forgotten most of what I wanted to write about, I suppose it does not really matter. So, for now, this is all I have.

Talk to you soon 

MWNews 42

Once again, it has been awhile and this post will not be very long. I just wanted to report on William. He has gotten his first tooth. He grizzles all the time, so we knew something was wrong and now we know. He has a little tooth on his bottom gum. It is not quite sticking out yet, but you can see it is there.

He is in the dining room right now having breakfast. I have to go to work soon, although I have already been working for a couple of hours but we have to take Maeghan in to the doctor today. She is going to in to be measured for knew splints. The old ones are getting a little too small. She has not been wearing them for the last couple of weeks and she is doing fine as far as we can tell. She can even walk around in her slippers, which she couldn't before because she they did not support her ankles enough and she kept rolling her feet over. Hopefully, she will not have to wear her splints for much longer. She really likes not wearing them and I think she can walk and run a little better without them. But, she still has a problem with balance and falling down a lot. The splints help support her legs and make them stronger.

I still have a lot of things to tell you about what Maeghan and William have been up to, but I have to go. We are settled into our new home and we like it so far. It is starting to get cold and we do not have enough heaters, so we will see what it gets like. I am going to buy a couple of room heaters to see if that helps but if it gets really cold, we might have to all wear jackets all the time.

We are thinking of taking a driving trip in July or August. We are going to go up north, where the weather is warmer. It is too hot in summer, but it should be ok during the winter. We don't know how far we will go or even when exactly, but I have eight weeks of vacation to use before next year and we plan on taking a couple of weeks and taking a trip. We will go through Brisbane at some point and we might stop and kidnap a couple of the grandkids, probably just Anna, but she is in school now and I don't know if she will be allowed to miss very much. We might go all the way to Caines but that is about a three day drive from here and could prove to be a little too far. We will probably end up around the southern end of the great barrier reef, not that we will go out in the water and see it, but at least we can say we saw part of it from above the water.

We have to go now. Maeghan will not wake up, she was up until midnight last night, so I have to carry her to the car. She is still the cutest thing around and William just adores her. He watches her all the time and laughs everytime she comes in the room. That is one sure way to make him happy, set him next to Maeghan. She just laughs and watches her and stays happy that way.

Maeghan loves the back yard and wants to play all the time. She has her jumping castle in the garage and even has friends that come over now and play with her. She calls everyone her best friend and everytime we pass the school around the corner, she says that is her new school and all her friends are there. She says when she goes to school, all her friends are going to chase her and they run really fast so she has to run really fast. She says she will chase them too, but she gets to go first.

I really have to go now. This picture is from Maeghan's favorite beach. She says all beaches are her favorite beach, until she actually gets there and then she says this isn't her favorite beach and when are we going to her favorite beach. She loves the beach, by the way, and it is too cold to go now. We had a hard time convincing her of this and she still wants to go all the time. She points out that it is warm outside and maybe we can go to the beach but we haven't been lately.

We still have to take her to the club so she can go dancing each week. She loves dancing. She has a new play group she goes to but she had to quit her ballet classes. They wanted to move her in with a lot of bigger kids and she was still recovering from her broken collar bone, so we didn't take her back. She dances at church and playgroup, so maybe that is enough for her.

Ok, I am going now.

Talk to you later.