On the Move .2

Just an update of how the house is travelling.

This is some of the work done during the months of April and May.

It was so fun for the kids to watch the heating system going on. Kinda reminds me of the E.T.movie toward the end when the FBI comes and wraps the house in plastic and foil and dress in space suits. Gotta love that movie.

It is a ducted system with each room separately zoned with its own control panel. We are hoping that with the big double glazed windows and north facing that we won't have to use it much on that side of the house and at the same time it keeps the south rooms nice and warm.

The exterior got underway nicely, just before winter hit. Weatherboard cladding over the garage and down the south of the house (notice my sample pot colours on the front - 7 sample pots later I settled on shale grey, a really light silvery grey), spotted gum timber which covers the theatre (second loungeroom) and down the end of the house over the master bedroom and the framing for the beginnings of a front entrance.

Simon working on the matrix down over the office and dining areas and out over the top of the deck.

 And on the inside, after the electrician and plumber did their bits n pieces.

Some photos just before the plaster went in. Our long hallway to play cricket in.

Looking down through to the loungeroom.

This is going to be our kitchen.

 Theatre room or guest bedroom according to the family. ;)

Office.

Dining area looking out through the bifold doors.

 Loungeroom again. Plastic on the outside of the windows for painting.

Master bedroom with plastic on the outside of all the windows ready for painting of weather boards.

Ensuite. You can look out the window while sitting on the dunny. Hopefully noone will be looking back at you. :)

Walk-in-robe.

Games room or a bedroom.

 Main bathroom.

 Toilet.

Laundry. Notice how nicely I have swept all the floors. :)

Whilte the plasterers got started on the inside, Simon got to work on the outside, painting the matrix in the same colour of the roof, Monument. This is the first coat. I love it because it is a nice charcoal grey and I think the coldness of it contrasts nicely with the warm rich tones of the spotted gum timber.

He also started on a retaining wall around the front of the house from the front door, along the front of the theatre and down the side to the beginning of the office that will house some nice plants down the track.

June and July saw the finish of the plastering, inside painting, painting and more painting, a front door and front steps, the start of the deck, fitting out with skirting boards, door jambs and architraves around the doors only as the windows are square set as is the ceiling so no cornices either.......just to name a few jobs Simon has done. Photos next post.

And hopefully next week before the end of the month.......the installation of the kitchen.

It has been six months....

...since I got the phone call from Lisa to say Aaron had passed away. I still remember that instant feeling of my stomach dropping to the point of nearly throwing up, holding fast to the washing machine to steady myself as my body immediately started reacting physiologically to the shock, waiting for my heart and mind to catch up.

My mind has caught up but I don't know when my heart will catch up. When my heart will catch up to the fact that a person who I love very much has first lost her beautiful Noah and then lost the love of her life and three beautiful boys, have lost one of the best Dads ever.

But you know what, read this post here written by Lisa as a guest blogger for the TOFW blog, and you will start to get a glimpse into who the Kings are, their courage, their grace, their inspiring example in the face of such heartache.

And just because two of them are waiting in heaven for the other four, does in no way mean, their story has ended. In fact the chapters ahead in their story, for all of them, are promised to be filled with a richness of blessings that we cannot fathom or yet understand.

And speaking of glimpses, these pics at the cemetery today are a glimpse into the beautiful cheekiness of Kobe. What a cutie.

 playing peek-a-boo with the balloons

Jonty doing some housekeeping

cheekiest pose of them all

and looking like an angel

Who says four year olds cannot inspire us, teach us and help us learn about what really matters most.

What goes around comes around

Sometimes sharing is not such a good thing.......especially when it comes to germs and winter colds and flus and little gastro bugs. The older three all succumbed this week, Sarra to a bad cold/flu and Oliver and Hallie to our little mate gastro.

This little bug is having a great party at the moment with lots of friends and strangers alike falling prey. The Deloraine Hospital was in lockdown this week so they could try and contain it and a note was sent home from school talking about it and what to do if your child gets it. ie -keep them home from school so they don't pass it on - except to their own family members! :)

Hallie of course suffered more than the other two. I knew she would. Because her (and Flynn) don't produce any cortisol (the hormone produced by the adrenal glands that protect us from illness and injury), she got sick quicker and for longer, throwing up heaps and sleeping alot on the couch. I had to triple her meds dosage, trying to imitate what 'normal' bodies do (when we are under stress from illness, our bodies start producing extra cortisol to combat the onslaught of sickness). I was worried that if she wasn't keeping her meds down that her body, without any cortisol, would just keep getting sicker and we would have to give the meds intraveneously, but thankfully she started getting better and was able to go back to school on Friday.

It helped that our neighbour Katherine brought over some good movies for her to watch to whittle away the time in between sleeping and my lovely visiting teacher, Ashlee made some hearty chicken vegetable soup for the troops.



So far neither Jonty or Flynn have got it, thankgoodness and Flynn continues to be my cute little kitchen helper. To everyone else out there who has been a part of the gastro party too, I hope you and your families get better soon.

*15 months*

Today I turned 15 months



I have decided that I absolutely love chocolate, biscuits, mashed potato, water, apples, bananas and cake.

Did I mention chocolate??

I weigh 9.2  kgs and am 67cms tall. (sitting on the 10th percentile) I know I'm little for my age but good things come in small packages right??

I don't say alot because quite frankly our house is noisy enough but I point (sometimes scream) if I want something and say bub bub, Dad Dad, Mumma, and Ra Ra (Sarra), ffff (if something is hot). I wave to people and play peek a boo.

I have 6 teeth and have the cheekiest biggest grin.

I am still feeding twice a night but not at all during the day except for just before bed at 7pm. I'd like to say that I am sleeping all night but I haven't quite got the hang of that yet and still wake every 3-4 hrs and sometimes I can do a 6 hr stretch. Sometimes randomly I can do an all-nighter and go 10 hrs but I'm yet to figure out how to keep that up (or Mum is anyway).

On the plus side, I am having one nice long day sleep each day, about 1.5 to 2 hours long.

I am loving bathtime each night and hanging with my bros. Still not talking to my sisters for dressing me up like a girl in the school holoidays. ;)

My meds are going okay. Still the usual routine of 7.30am. 3.30pm. 7.30pm and 11.30pm - same as Hallie so that makes it easier even though our doses are different. We are still having trouble getting my blood pressure down, scistolic Dr A calls it. We have changed the meds dosage...... again so hopefully we can figure that one out with the next round of bloods.

I am the fastest crawler on the block and am walking around while holding onto stuff. But just a few nights ago I did this..........

My family is such a good audience. Obviously this standing up business is good stuff because they are all making such a fuss about it. :) I reckon by next time I post, I will have this walking stuff down pat.

A brush of paint

Many animals like to hibernate during winter and humans are not too far behind in the chillier months, except if you are Flynn of course who still likes to burn the midnight oil, regardless of the weather. 

 I was talking to my Dad on the phone the other day and he asked me when my next post was going to be as I hadn't posted since June 18th. It looked like I was hibernating from my blog. The kids have been asking me the same question, "Mum we are sick of reading about Flynny's first haircut, hurry up!". And as my point of blogging is for my kids to read back on, I started getting the guilts for letting it go so long.

It's just that like everyone else in this mad dashed world, I have been busy and not just busy but frenetic, and I know something will happen soon to pull me up short to make me stop and smell the roses once again. I love that life forces us to do this, because all I am doing at the moment is vaguely noticing how lovely the colour of the rose petals are.

A part of the 'being busy' is our house that Simon is building. We are at the painting stage. We have had some wonderful paint helpers in Simon's Dad, brother Dion and nephew Josh who knocked over the bedrooms and some undercoating in a single day.

Once the painting is done, it's time for skirting boards, architraves and door jambs - yay more painting!! :)