MWNews 69

See, I didn't finish the story when I got home. Can't remeber why, but I have an extra half an hour before I leave work today, so I thought I would try to add to the camping story.

As you can see, I have added two pictures this time. Neither of which is current or from a camping trip, but it is what I had. I think I have posted from this set of pictures before. It is one of the beaches near us. Actually, it is near Shelly Beach, where we used to live. We went for a walk one day and I took a lot of pictures.

And so I can keep with the theme of always finding something to complain about, the blog is not working as it should and I am having to use two lines between paragraphs instead of just one. Normally, it fills in the extra line for me, but does not seem to be doing that now. Might be something I have done but if the paragraphs in this post are separated by hugh gaps, it is not my fault.

The third day of camping was perfect. You could not ask for a better day. Clear skies, not too warm or too cold, little wind. As I said, perfect.

We had promised the kids a they could spend all day on the beach that day and we decided to walk from the camp grounds, around the bay area to the town across the bay. We had visited it briefly the day before but it looked like a pleasant walk if we went along the beach.

It was probably only about two miles, but after taking an hour and a half to walk one way, it seemed a lot farther. Juanita had convinced me to walk all that way without shoes. It was sand, no rocks and the sand was compacted enough to be able to puch the pram on.

Now, I have to explain, that I am an american. And while most kids go barefoot most of the time in America, as an adult, I always wear shoes. I think it is a cultural thing. You know the signs, no shirt, no shoes, no service. I grew up with that idea and have lived my life by it.

In Australia, they take their shoes off most of the time. Most houses, the owners have a little, and some not so little, pile of shoes just outside the front door. You are expected to take your shoes off anytime you enter someone's house. Being American, I never do, but it is expected and everyone seems to comply with that option. Even repair workers and salesmen take their shoes off when they come into your house. I have no idea how or where this tradition started, but it seems to be generally acepted here in Australia.

Well, walking a couple of miles with no shoes on was not all that fun. Even if the sand was soft and there were no rocks or anything to walk on. By the time we got to the town, my feet were killing me. It was only the prospect of having to walk all the way back that kept me from falling down and crying because of the pain. Juanita was not effected at all and, of course, the kids had no problems with it either. The did spend most of the time walking in the waves as they rolled in but I tried that a couple of times and besides the fact that the pram would not roll in the wet sand, it was bloody cold in the water and I was not going to stay in there no matter how good it might feel on my aching feet.

I have mentioned the pram a couple of times. I decided it would be a good idea to take it with us. Not only because I knew the kids would get tired and want to be picked up but also, it made a convient place to hold everything we were taking with us.

We brought water, cokes, snacks, jumpers (in case it got cold), buckets for digging and the kites in case we wanted to rest and fly them. The kites got taken out almost immediately, but there was not enough wind to keep them aloft. After letting them rise a few times and then having the wind die and they come crashing down into the water, I decided it was not worth the effort and put them away.

The buckets never got used as the kids were playing in the water too much and the drinks were finished in the first 45 mintes of the trip, so for the next 45 minutes, we had nothing to drink.

William spent the most time in the pram. He was not feeling well and spent about 30 minutes at the start resting. After a while, he got out and played with the others. We changed his nappy and left it off of him after a little while and he thought that was just wonderful. He came running up to me and said, 'Dad, look. He bent over and showed me his bare bottom and ran off laughing. Everyone seemed to think this was hilarious. I am not so sure. I took as a sign of things to come when he gets older. Guess only time will tell.

Maeghan walked the entire way over. She never got tired and ran and splashed the whole way. She found some shells and some sticks and never once complained about being tired or wanting to get into the pram. I am not sure how she managed it. I was exhausted, but she kept going and going. Even when we arrived, she wanted to go play in the playground we knew was there and would not let us rest or sit for any amount of time. We managed to get them both in the public showers to rinse off the sand, but they were straight over to the park after that. I wanted to lie down and sleep but could not find a comfortable enough place to do it. Besides, it was lunch time and I was hungry.

We went for fish and chips. The shop owner tried to warn me that I had ordered too much food, but I would not listen and we ended up with about three times as much chips as we wanted. Normally, having too much food is not a problem, but there were a lot of chips. Maeghan and Juanita spent the time picking out the crispy ones. Too much troube to explain what that means, but they both say they only eat crispy chips and leave all the other to me and William.

After lunch, we went to play again and I tried to sleep on the bench. I had better luck sleeping sitting up but could not find a comfortable spot when I tried to lay down. After about two hours, we decided it was time to go back.

The kids played for about the first half hour, then they wanted in the pram. William went right to sleep. Maeghan stayed awake, probably because it was not comfortable for her but after an hour of that, she got out and started playing in the water again. It took about the same amount of time to get back. I have to tell you that at this point, I was thinking I would never walk again. My feet hurt. Juanita had made arrangements with the kids to take a shower and then take a nap when we got back. We got the kids showered and I went to shower myself. When I got back, Juanita and William and Juanita were going to sleep but Maeghan wanted to continue to play. I took her up to the trash disposal area and we emptied out rubbish. When we got back, the others were aware and we decided to drive to see the light house that was nearby. Fifteen minutes in the car and both kids were asleep. Juanita and I decided to try to find other camping areas nearby, in case we wanted to come back someday, and drove for about another two hours. We ended up in the nearest big town and it was dark. I had already decided I was too tired to cook back at the camp, so we spent some time looking for a place to eat.

No point in saying we ended up at McDonalds. We always end up at McDonalds. I won't go into the fascination Australia has with McDonalds, but there seem to be more of them here than there are in America. At least one if every town, and most of the time, one every few blocks. Maybe it is because we live in the Sydney area, but they are everywhere. And we always seem to end up there.

It must be said that there is not a whole lot of other choices. Fast food is not something Australians are really into, not like in America, but other types are restaurants are just too expensive to eat in. To me, they charge way too much for dining out over here. At least $30 a person, no matter where you go or what you order. So we end up at McDonalds. It is either that or KFC. Not a whole lot of other choices.

We were scheduled to leave the next day and according to our brochure, we had to be out of the campsite by 10 am. We started packing about 8 am and finished around noon. No one from the camp site came by and said anything, so that was not an issue, but what took us three hours to setup took four hours to take down. Mostly because we clean everything so it does not get packed away dirty, although by the time I was ready to take the tent down, I gave up on wiping the bottom of the tent off as I wrapped it up so it will be dirty the next time we use it.

Then I had to pack the trailor, did I mention we bought a new trailor mostly just for camping. I probably did at some point. Anyway, I packed it up and put the tarp over it and then the netting to hold it all in place. I have to say that we used to do this type of thing with rope and try to tie everything down. Boy were we stupid. It is so much easier to throw a tarp across everything and use the netting we bought with the trailor to lay over it and hold everything down. I have no idea how we ever did that with the ropes. And you do not have to worry about packing everything just right. It is not going anywhere with the tarp to keep the wind off it. It works just great.

Well, once again, I have overstayed my time. I was meant to leave 20 minutes ago and I still have not mentioned Maeghan and the doctor. She had her yearly or half-yearly appointment last week. That is where Juanita was when I was writing the last blog and she was coming to pick me up. I suppose I will go into it the next time. That is why I am mentioning it here, so when some back to this, I can read it and remember what it was I was going to write about. Clever eh?

Anyway, I have to go home now. We are going to a camping show on the weekend, it is one of the only ones that is free around here. It is back where we lived when we first came to Sydney, in the Penrith area. We have not been back in a couple of years. It is about two hours from where we live now, so it will be good to get back and see how things have changed. Probably have not changed at all, although there is a new shopping center that they were building the last time we went that way and I want to check it out.

So until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 68

We went camping this past weekend. Three days. Kind of a dress rehearsal for our ten day adventure we are planning for Christmas. And before we go into the camping at Christmas questions, this is something that Australians do during the holidays. They go camping, or vacationing. Since almost everyone in Australia gets a minimum of four weeks vacation, or leave time as they call it here, the holidays if pretty much when all the companies shutdown and everyone goes somewhere. I think it is a relic of the past when the government or work ethic mandated that everything shutdown during the holidays. Certain days, everything was required to be closed. Only esential services were allowed to be open, like petrol stations and some public services.
These days, I don't think it is mandated anymore. Only Christmas day is a 'you must not be open' day. And that is apparently changing. It is only recently that shops and stores were allowed to be open on Sunday's, but that is the norm now, at least in most of the country. Some places still remain closed on Sundays.
You have to also remember that up until about 40 years ago, Texas had the same type of thing, where you could not buy certain items on Sunday and there was actually no liquour by the drink available. I have no idea what that means, but I am told it was a big deal. So it is not all that far-fetched for Australia to just now be catching up with the whole retail frenzy.
There are still not a lot of places open 24 hours. Only some McDonalds drive-thrus and a couple of places in the city, but for the most part, everything is closed by midnight and most of the shops actually close at 5 on the weekdays and 4 on weekends. That is 5 and 4 in the afternoon. Most states have a late night shopping day. In New South Wales, it is thursday, but I think it is Wednesday in Tasmania and Quensland. I know it difers from state to state.
The main reason for the late night, and I am talking staying open to 9 pm, is that it is when the government checks come out. All the pensioners and all the govenment payments come out on Thursday, so the shops stay open to take advantage of all the people who now have money. Centerlink, the government welfare department, used to come out at the same time, but now, most of the payments, you can request what day it comes out on, so it is not as big a factor in the late night shopping days.
Not sure how I wandered off into that topic from the camping start to this entry. Might have been a good reason for it, but I can't recall what it was.
The kids loved the camping, but they always do. A lot of people tell me the kids are always getting bored when they go camping, but ours apparently are not old enough for that yet. They are still actively going everywhere the whole time. Most of the time, they are doing something they should not be doing, so we spend out time yelling at the kids to stop what they are currently up to, but at least they are doing something and not sitting around waiting for us.
Being on the beach kind of helps also. It was suppossed to be cold when we went and we were staying right on the beach, or just on the cliff above it, so we did not expect to be near the water very often. But it turned out to be ok and the kids spent hours digging in the sand.
The first day started ok but after the sun went down, the wind picked up and we worried about the tent blowing away the whole night. We have to cover the tent with a tarp to make sure it does not leak when it rains but the tarp came loose fairly early in the night and spent the rest of the time flapping and making a lot of noise so no one could sleep. At about 4 in the morning, I got up and took it down. The wind had sort of died at that point and I could do it by myself but it picked up again later and was really blowing for a while.
After that, I thought we were in for a bad time and we considered moving camp to a differnt spot, away from the edge of the beach. We did not really consider it a lot as we spent neraly four hours setting up camp and did not want to undo it and start again, but if the wind had kept up, we might not have had a choice.
Later, on the second day, after the wind had died down, it started to rain. Not a lot of rain, but enought so the kids could not stay outside for long. That kept up most of the night. We had driven into town earlier, so the kids had some adventures, but at camp, we spent the time playing games and trying to keep the kids from knocking things over.
Hate to cut this short, but it is near time for me to be picked up from work, so I have to go. Maybe I will finish it when I get home, but we know the download speed problem with dialup, so I might have to put it off until Monday.
Anyway, have to go. Juanita and the kids are probably waiting out front.
Until next time,
Talk to you later

MWNews 67

Hard to believe it has been twenty years since my last post. You would think I would have found the time at some point. Well, it has been an eventfull time. Not that I can actually include all the goings on in this one post, but I can give where the kids are now and what they are up to, although, at any given moment, it is hard to keep track of what they are doing.
I don't have any recent photos on my work computer to upload here, and since my home computer is currently without an internect connection other than dialup, we have to use pictures that are on this computer. This is an oldie but a goodie. Probably used it already in the past, but who really knows. Certainly not me. I am old.
Mostly, we have kids who are 5 and 1/2 and almost 3. Maeghan goes to school, kindy, and she loves it. She just had her annual play and I did not get one decent picture of any of it. I was in the middle of the room, and the camera I was using would not focus on the screen. I kept focusing on the people in front of me, so all the pictures are out of focus for Maeghan. I have some small movies from the camera, but I am not sure I can pull any of the frames out of that to save. They are better as I can manually focus those, but the others, I did not know how to turn off auto-focus, so don't expect any pictures of that anytime soon.
William, on the other hand, is still a real terror. I have repeatedly mentioned how often he gets into trouble because he is constantly on the move, but he does not seem to be slacking off any. Since he is bigger now, and can speak almost to the point that you understand everything he is saying, he has the capacity to get into even more trouble. And he does. Always gettting into something, always doing something he is not suppossed to do and always talking and asking questons about what he can and cannot do.
I say asking questions, but most of the time, that is not really his style. He has developed the habit of whenever he wants something or when he has a question, he screams very loudly for mom or dad. He keeps yelling our name until one of us answers him, then he will quietly ask us whatever it is that is interested in the moment.
And forget about waiting him out until he decides to come to wherever you are and ask quietly. Hhe just stays where he is and yells more and more frequently until you answer him. It would not be that much of a problem except he seems to want things after he, and everyone else, have gone to bed each night. Sometime after you have laid down and are about to go to sleep, you here him yell at the top of his voice, and he has a very loud top, for either mommy or dad to come give him a drink, or ask if he can sleep with us, or any number of little things that he has no need for. One of the favorites, beside asking for a bottle which he does not get anymore, is to call you into his room to tell you that he has dropped his cars and wants you to find them for him.
You see, he has to have a car in each hand most of the time now. Actually, since his hands are bigger, he has to have two cars in one hand at any given time so he can play with them at a moments notice. He carries them around with him everywhere and since everyone notices this, he is always getting new little cars for him to carry. We have a five gallon bucket full of little hot wheels and other little cars that we try to keep hidden most of the time because anytime he sees it, he sits down and takes every one of the cars out of the bucket and then sorts through them until he finds his favorites. Since his favorite changes a lot, you cannot keep any one or two cars out and hope he decides to play with them. No, he has to look through them all until he decides.
And you would think that would not be so bad, but if he has been yelled at or gotten into trouble for anything, his first thought is to pull all those cars out and throw them in all directions until he finds the one he wants. I am sure he does that to get attention and point out the fact that you have upset him by yelling at him, but he has caused some problems when he hits someone or something else in his tantrum. But that does not happen all that often so you generally do not find out that he is doing it until you walk over a few dozen cars as you enter the room.
Lately, his thing is to go into his bed and sulk as this has been the punishment of late for when he does something really wrong. Now, if you yell at him or say anything harsh to him, he will go into his room and crawl under his pillow and blanket until you notice that he is upset. It works. You just feel sorry for him when he does it and he gets to come out and have everthing ok. Until he repeats whatever it was he got into trouble for in the first place. And it is not as if he forgets that he got into trouble for it. If you watch him, he will look to see if you are watching and even if you are, he will do it anyway and then stare at you as if to say, 'am I going to get in trouble again and you wouldn't dare punish me again for it'. As they say over here, he is a cheeky little bugger.
Maeghan, on the other hand, has decided she knows what is best at all times. She will tell you what you should do for any situation and will let you know that what she is doing and why at all times. She is still the cutest thing there ever was but I think this little attitude she is developing is going to be a problem as she just becomes cuter and cuter.
And, she is cute, there is no getting around that. Still the smallest one around and still getting noticed by everyone that walks past or hears her talk. People are till amazed that this little tiny girl is so talkative and so articulate. She is so tiny, they just do not expect her to be five years old and walking and talking and being so smart. They are just suprised everytime she meets anyone new and even those that have known her forever are still amazed at how smart she is.
Everyone at her school knows her. When we pick her up or drop her off, everyone, and I mean everyone, says hi Maeghan as we walk past. She ignores them but still, the next day, the same people say hi to her. There are a few that she replies to, but mostly, she just keeps walking. She says everyone is always talking to her and wanting to play with her and she just wants to play with her friends. If she encourages anyone, they will follow her around and want her to play all the time. You would think she would love the attention, and I guess she does, but she has apparently gotten tired of it all the time and is slightly embarrassed by it. Even kids that have no idea who she is or have just seen her, come up to her and try to play with her. Mostly small children who cannot talk or are just babies, will pull on her arms or try to hug her. She is bothered by that, but they still do it. I guess it is because they see her as being the same size as them and they think she will want to play. I can see where that can be really annoying to her. She has mentioned in the past that there are little kids that will not leave her alone and does not want to go places where they might be. She hides behind me when she sees these kids and tries to have me pick her up so they will not bother her.
Maeghan has not been to the doctor lately. We apparenly missed her last appointment, but since they only happen once a year now, we forgot about the last one. I put them in my phone to remind me, but apparently, I had a different phone when last we made and appointment, so they had to call us and reschedule. I think it is for next week. She will go for an annual checkup to see if she is making progress like she should.
There are a lot of things she still cannot do, like run normally or fast. She tries but she just cannot generate the leg movement or strength to get herself into a real run. She does say now that she is the slowest runner in the world. I am not sure if she is upset by this or she just says that, but I am hoping she is really ok with it. Not that there is a lot to be done about it, but I don't think she feels sorry for herself or anything. She just states it as a fact.
And she loves atheletics. She wants to play everything. She got tired of baseball, she said it was boring, but now she does her dance and she does gymnastics and she wants to try everything. She wants to play soccer but I think she realises that she cannot keep up with or kick the ball very far, so she does not try to play with the other kids, but I think she wants to. She loves it when we go to the park and play with the balls.
We have moved, probably a couple of times since the last post and now live in what is called Wadalba. Not that far from where we have been living, on the central coast, but in a relatively new housing developement. Hence my problem with an internet connection. It seems there is broadband in my area, but they have either run out of ports or the lines they have installed are not suitable for DSL. I have no idea why a new area would install lines that are not capable of DSL, but this is Australia, where DSL speed is considered a fast internet connection. At some point, and they have not said when, they might add some ports so they could then check if my line is capable but that may or may not happen anytime soon, so I am stuck using dialup until that time. As there is no other option for an internet carrier, I am not hopeful that the problem will be resolved while we live in this house. After a year, if it is not fixed, we will be moving again.
Some of you might have noticed that we have moved every year since we came to Sydney and that is true. Always, it has been for some reason or another, but in the end, we need to find a place we can be happy with. So far, there has always been a problem with every place we have lived and so, after a year when our lease is up, we have moved. And I doubt if this current place will last longer than a year. No heat, which will probably mean no air-conditioning in the summer, no internet and the power blows anytime you have the dryer running and anything else running in the house. Long story to explain the wiring connections in the house, but depending on which side of the house you plug something into, you have to make sure that you turn something else off on the same circuit before you turn it on. A major pain and not something I think they can fix. So expect to hear that we are moving again in the next year.
I suppose I should get back to work now. Always have lots to do and have done none of it. I have to leave a bit early to pick up William so Juanita can take Maeghan to ballet after school. (You cannot take William to ballet, ever) I am sure there is a lot to say and a lot to relate. Sometime in the next year, I will get back to this blog. I have been thinking about posting for a while, but never seem to get to it. I only did this now because I found out someone actually read this and found me here in Australia because of it. Thanks Mike. You actually get a mention in the blog for that. Of course, you will probably never read this again so will never know about the mention, but as I have said all along, I started this really so the kids could have something in twenty years that tell them of the life and times and my impressions of them way back when.
I will sign off now. Its been fun typing all this again. I think I missed doing this. Most people who might have read this in the past have long since dropped off and will not know I am back, but maybe someday, someone will check and see there are new posts.
Until next time,
Talk to you later

MWNews 66

I'm back. After a three month vacation, I have been approved for another year of broadcasts. Last minute additions to the show will be allowed only if pre-approved by management.
Lots of news and lots of hting to talk about. Won't get to it all but read the show notes and that will catch you up on the latest adventures.
(Ok, for those you are not following along, there really isn't a show and there are not show notes, so don't spend your time looking for them.)
Maeghan started school yestersay. Her first day at kindergarden. I have pictures but have not downloaded them to the PC yet, so you get a picture of the kids on the beach. Not a lot of beach in the picture but trust me, there we ocean and sand and waves just meters from where this picture is taken.
Maeghan was really excited to go to school. She has been waiting for months. It was kind of hard to let her go. As we were walking into the gates, lots of parents and kids were commenting on how small and cute she was. She is really cute in her school clothes. It would have been nice if I had posted a picture, but that explanation has already been made.
She has a little hat and little shoes and a cute little skirt. Once we had dropped of the other kids, they started at 9 and she started at 9:15, we went into the auditorium where she was to meet her 'buddy'. This was an older girl, she was in the sixth grade, who was to show Maeghan around and take her to the classes and basically be with her all day to help her out.
All the buddies wanted to be with Maeghan. I think I have mentioned that Maeghan is aleady well known in the school. Several groups of girls said hi to her as we walked through and others would point and we would here comments about how cute she is. I don't know how so many people got to know who she is. Even the principal and several teachers came up to us and talked to Maeghan and asked her if she was excited to be at school. All of them knew her by name. I didn't recognize any of them but apparently, we have met them at some time or another.
I had not gotten to go with Maeghan the previous day when she met her teacher. I was at work. So Maeghan took me to show her where her class was and where her special chair is and all the things in her classroom. She has a special chair that is taller than the other kids chairs so she can sit at the same table with them. They apparently had her at a special table with a regular chair when she went for the orientation, but no one else would have been sitting with her. Maeghan told them that she would rather sit with the other kids, so they got her the special chair. It really isn't that different and the tables are already really small, I couldnot have sat at one of them, so I don't think the other kids will even notice.
Maeghan does already have some friends in the class. Some of the kids from Ready, Set, Go are in her class so she has friends. She told me today that she made some new friends but she could not remember their names. It sounds like she is getting along well with them. She did a picture of a star today. I keep asking her about her homework and she says she has homework but I don't think she really does.
What made the first day a little hard was it was also William's first day at pre-school. He is going to the same pre-school that Maeghan went to. He has visited a few times, so he know his way around but this was the first time he had to stay by himself. He was all keen to go at first, but then he realised that both mommy and daddy were going to leave and he got a little upset. One of the teachers took him to the sandpit so we could sneak out, but you could tell he was not sure about it.
We called a little later in the day and they said had cried for a while but that he got over it and was playing. He goes back on monday so we will see how that goes. We may not keep him in this pre-school as it is about 30 minutes away and with having to pick up all the kids at different times, it makes it hard to get him on time.
When we left William, Juanita did cry a little because all the kids were in school now. I was worried about William being on his own since this is the first time he has been without us, other than staying with Natalie and Adam, but they are family so that does not worry him. He did stay at Mary Grace's house once, while Juanita was in the hospital but he sees her all the time also, so that did not bother. Plus, she has three boys who he can play with and they keep him entertained.
To be honest, I cried a little when we dropping Maeghan off but I hid it well and no one saw. She was just so cute and she was so happy to be there and kept telling us we could leave at anytime. I kept telling her I was staying and asking her where my chair was. She said I couldn't stay. And all the people who kept saying how small she was and how cute she was just got to me a few times, so I had to walk away. Fortunately, William was with us and I had to keep chasing him around, so it gave me an excuse to cry on my own.
Anyway, Maeghan is doing great, William should be ok at his new school and now we have two days where we do not have any kids with us. I work on one of the days, so it will not be any different for me, but on Thursdays, we have all day without the kids and nothing to do but go shopping. Since we can no longer take William anywhere without him running amok, it makes it easier to shop for groceries without him. Although, William just loves going to the mall and running around, so we have to take him other days when we have nothing else to do.
I have some other stuff, lots of other stuff, to talk about but I am getting tired and need to go to bed soon. Been a long day and William does not let us get any consistant sleep. He wakes up about once an hour and wants his drink or wants to move into bed with us or just makes little noises so you cannot sleep. I have not told you about Williams second birthday or about Christmas or about Natalie and Adam's wedding or about anything that has happened in the last three months. I suppose I will get to it someday, but then I wouldnt count on it. We will just have to see what happens. I really do like typing these things but I never seem to have a free hour or more to devote to it. This entry took two hours to write but mainly because Maeghan was in here talking to me most of the time.
I guess that is all I have for now.
Talk to you later

MWNews 65

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

MWNews 64

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 63

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time,

Talk to you later