Happy

I love having my Wife home on the week ends...

Rain Rain Go Away

This rain is starting to drive us crazy.

We were supposed to go up to Broadwater State Forrest on Sat for our Delica Day Out but it's an absolute no go.

A friend in Ingham has about 3-4 foot of water running under his house - and we have to drive through past it to get to Broadwater.

So there's not much to tell cause we haven't been doing much.

Jack had a News Report speech to do at school today, so him and I sat down last night and went through the Courier Mail.

I got him to look at the pics and when he found one he liked I read him the story in his terms.

He found one about the jelly fish blowing up on the beach on the Sunshine coast and so I read it to him.

His teacher told me that he got up and did a very good speech telling the class that it was stinger season and we shouldn't go swimming in the ocean, and that the wind blew lots of Jellyfish up on the beach and the life saver said he has never seen so many jellyfish.

Well Done Jack!!

Last night I put photos of all of Kate's classmates into her trial Liberator 14.

And this morning she was saying "Good Morning Mrs Nolan" and also to all her classmates (by name), which they thought that was pretty cool. So did all the mum's...

Kate's already got a bit of a fan club.

For 3 years we asked her previous school if we could take pics of her classmates to put into her 'talker' and it didn't happen..

We've been at Southern Cross Catholic School 11 days now and it's already done. I spent the day with her class on Monday and the teachers and support workers have taken on everything I have suggested, I think it is going to be a real TEAM environment there for us and Kate.

But most importantly both Kate and Jack are enjoying it.

The young lad who moved into the house across the road over the school holidays is also going to the same school so some days if his Dad has an early start he come with us.

After the Australia Day BBQ and we all had a good social meet everyone seems carrying that on so hopefully we will have a nice little network soon.

Well it's getting late and I have school tomorrow..

So I'm off to bed....

¡¡¡lnɟǝɹɐɔ ǝq

¡¡¡ʇǝuɹǝʇuı ǝɥʇ ɟɟo spɹɐoqʎǝʞ dɐǝɥɔ ƃuıʎnq ɟo lnɟǝɹɐɔ ǝq

The Dam is Full, The Dam is Full!!

We went to the movies today and saw "Bolt" then we went for a drive up to the Ross River Dam to have a look at the water coming over the spillway.

Here is Jack and Will at the bottom of the spillway.

Kate always has a cheeky smile for the camera..


The grate in front of us is out over the flowing water and the spray and wind shoot straight up, this is where we get soaked..

We had to leave Kate's chair up the top and I carried her down the ten or so staircases AND THEN back up again...Phew!

Always knows there's a camera around..

Time to think!

I had a terrible night last night, That's why I'm up at 0330 on the computer.
Yesterday (Fri) we were supposed to head up to Cairns for the week end. Donna has the week end off - and that doesn't happen very often - so we were staying at this nice resort with a big pool and playground for the kids. It was a last minute thing but I was really excited about getting out if this house.

The rain has been depressing me and even though it was probably raining in Cairns also I was happy to lay about in a hotel room and watch movies or go for a swim with the kids in the pool and maybe even do a trip to sugar-world.

But it was not to be, and for some reason I feel like there was a reason we should not go. I don't know what it is - but.....

This business with the young child being thrown off the bridge in Melbourne has really knocked me around a bit also, I keep picturing it in my head - Dad driving the car in solid traffic, Kids screaming in he back, Dad under lots of stress, Dad then snaps!!! I picture the child looking at its Dad has he carries her to the side thinking he won't do it he's my dad and then looking back up at Dad while she's falling to earth thinking.... he's supposed to be protecting me....what Did I do??....Why doesn't he love me????

I know as parents we all been in the situation where you are driving and the kids are going ballistic in the back but where is that line that changes you to do something as irrational and deadly as the above story.

How close has any of us been to that line. Maybe not to the extreme as the above but to at least not paying attention to what is really important - The deadly weapon you are driving - not who took who's toy or who's turn is it to pick the movie.

A friend on mine was driving home the other day from picking his kids up from school and came across a fatal motorcycle accident where the rider was an older guy - maybe had kids maybe not but no doubt had a family somewhere and his (my friend) kids were in the car while he was trying to save this guy. What a terrible thing to happen.

Sorry about the rant but it makes you think.....

What really is Important to Us ...Huh!!!

Australia Day

This is how we Celebrated Australia Day.
Just a bit of a BBQ with the neighbours!!!




The Pool.

The Flag..

The pool again....In the rain!

Cleaning Up the next day..

First day of school!

Can you tell that the first day of school followed Australia Day! This was a great opportunity to take a photo of the 5 of us together, looking somewhat respectable!

Kate Talking!!!

Kate has had her trial 'Talker' for a week now and is going really well with it!

Here is the video that we have sent away for apply for MASS (Medical Aid Subsidy Scheme) funding for some of the cost of Kate's Liberator 14.

Please enjoy!

It All Arrives!

What a day it was yesterday,

Kate's Liberator 14 arrived for trial.



It's an upgrade of the communication device that she is already using and we have it for a month.
As you can see from the link above it is a very complex voice output communication device and we now have a month to raise the AU$13,000 so Kate can continue using it at school.
It has always been Donna and my goal for Kate to have a new one by the start of school.

Kate's old one has never worked at 100% since it came home one day from her old school rattling like a baby's toy but that is another story....

This one has a MP3 player and runs Windows XP so now everything can be done on the device where as we used to have to connect it up to her laptop for her to use Word etc.

But I think the Mp3 player is what Kate is most excited about...

What also arrived yesterday was the approval for funding for the renovation of our bathroom, We wanted to enclose the laundry, toilet and bathroom into one big room with full wheelchair access etc.

The funding only covers half of the cost so we need to come up with the rest (just over 9 grand).

So it will be interesting where all this money is going to come from?

Oh Well that's the life of a parent with a special needs Kid I suppose.

Getting Sorted

Now that it's 2009,

I'm going to get all my pics and video's sorted into albums for 2008......True!

Jack The Bike Rider

Today Jack came up to me and asked
"When can I take my training wheels off Dad?"
and I said
"Right Now Mate!"

So we did and here are the results:





I'm So Proud Of Him!!!

Summer Days!

Poor old Will had to go back to school (Pre-Prep) yesterday.

So he's been missing out on the odd swim.

When he got home yesterday he had a swim all by himself:

Hi Mum!


It's not cold - trust me..


I'm Batman!!!

Happy Campers

Kate and Jack both wanted to sleep in our bed tonight, So they did!
But then they talked Donna into sleeping there as well.

Not this Daddy though I've got Jack's bed all to my self...Hah!!

Happy New Year!!

Stormy Times

The other night one of the boys (Jack) slept in with me and therefore I went to bed early. About 20:30. Therefore I was awake at 01:30 thinking what am I going to do now.

There was a bit of a storm out to the North so I thought I might grab the camera and have a bit of a play with the lightening...






If you look really closely you can see the lightening. (really closely LOL)

Was good fun but the Mozzies got me in the end.

Santa's Radio

Santa Bought me a UHF radio for my Beloved Delica for Xmas and Today I installed it - myself - I'm so proud



Had a bit of fun doing it and am looking forward to giving it a run on our next Delica Day Out.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas,

Well the day is here and the tree is full, the kids are still asleep and it's already hot as.

Last night was our drive around town to check out all the lights - so as to tire out the kids so they would sleep in a little bit LOL.. seems to have worked.

Hope everyone gets what they want this year..

again Merry Christmas...

Drew

I wanna do this next year!!

Click Here!!

Happy Birthday Will

It was Will's Birthday yesterday and this is the cake (Choc fudge Browine) that he wanted..
And He wanted to make it..(with some help from Dad.)

"I just want to read!!"

"And I'm going to make my own.."

Happy Birthday my Big 4 year old..

Paluma - again

Well back now from the Paluma trip,

We nearly didn't make it, we had to take Kate to Hospital on Friday morn with her cyclic vomiting,
Fortunately with our new letter for the ED she was treated straight away in stead of "we'll just observe her for a few hours" and quick treatment (sedation) means only an overnight stint but this time with obliging doctors Kate was home Friday night Yay!!

Anyway..
It was one on those trips – good and bad!!
The venue was great,

the weather was great.



I forgot nearly all the important stuff, (after Kate being in hospital and all)
And the Kids (boys) were atrocious LOL.

I even took them on a big bush walk to try and kill off some energy and they were little angels, as soon as we opened the door to the room they turned in the devil himself.
I’m sure my brother and I were never like that (right Mum?).


Our Lollie Lunch..

Kate being not 100% didn’t help, neither me forgetting the Panadol, Or a syringe for her seizure meds, or food for lunch or…should I go on!

All in all when we arrived home tonight everyone was happy and felt like they had a good time, and that was the main aim.
Donna didn’t even take her phone with her!!!

Where are my Grapes and Palmfronds??

It’s Will’s birthday tomorrow (22nd) so we’ll leave it up to him to what we will do. That should be fun. Ha.