Retrospectively speaking

Ok, so its been a while.

Let me just brief you on the last couple of months since my last blog entry.

At the end of June, the naughty lump in the bad twin got so damned painful, it just had to come out...some nasty procedures involving insertion of wire and being awake to experience the joy of it all, and then surgery, and then what has turned out to be a long recovery (still can't hang the washing out with my right arm or push a grocery trolley....however, I did make sure the day after surgery that I could successfully operate the coffee machine left handed, so now I have a new skill).

Coinciding with my immediate recovery, was the arrival of several very loud tradesmen, concreters, a cement truck, a bobcat and a couple of trucks roaring backwards and forwards up our driveway - to lay the slab for our new shed. Because I was in a drug induced haze for that entire day, the machinery didn't bother me too much, but the very loud tradesmen did. Even when there is no machinery in operation, they still YELL across the yard to each other - and often when they were standing right beside each other as well. It nearly brought me to SNAPPING point!!! Anyway, slab laid, then another long wait until the shed erecter man turned up to actually put the aeroplane hanger up. Finally, after 4 MONTHS, the shed is now up, and Adan can now park his fleet of aircraft in it.

During the shed erecting week, Adan's dad hurt his left arm in the wheel of his wheelchair and was rushed to ICU at St.Vinnies. After complication-upon-complication, he then took a serious turn for the worst and was put on life support. I am happy to say, he has now been transferred to the Base ICU, and improves every day. This week should see him come off the ventilator altogether, and hopefully he will leave ICU and go into a ward. Its still very doubtful what use he will ever have of his left arm again, so its a bit of a waiting game. It was a very stressful couple of weeks when he was at his worst. Subsequently, Adan cancelled his trip to the Cape with the Great Endeavour Rally and stayed here to spend every possible moment he could with his dad.

After the last few weeks of health crisises in our family, we took a long weekend last weekend for some much needed family time (the kids have been through quite a bit what with Mum's operation and subsequent recovery time, and then Poppy being so very sick in hospital, and mum and dad spending so much time at the hospital with him) and headed to Hervey Bay for some whale watching. It was a great weekend for everyone - and Adan was desperately in need of some down time. We saw the first pods of whales to arrive in Hervey Bay for the season, and also saw the Blessing of the Fleet of Whale watching boats. It was warm and sunny and I didn't have to cook once!! Very hard to return to cold windy, oceanless, Toowoomba.

So, below are some snaps of the last few months to keep you up to speed with the residents of Tullytown. Mac has had a haircut (Hooray!!!!), Luke has jumped 2 shoe sizes, and Phoebe has informed me she doesn't want to be called Phoebe anymore..."I'm Kaila now Mum. Just Kaila." (Is that like "Madonna"?) I have had to cancel more hair appointments then I would care to mention due to sick family members, and this week, my cleaning lady starts (its so terrible that I can't use my right arm to scrub things for a while.....)

And in conclusion, thankyou to Goomeri, a little town north of here, where we stopped en route to Hervey Bay - where I have stopped in the past en route to Bundaberg...
Goomeri provided me with one of my all time favourite quotes, courtesy of a sleazy little man who owned the bakery there years ago...My friend Kerry O'Brien and I stopped there for refreshments, and Sleazy Man said "Hi, How are you?" and I said "Good thankyou" and he replied, "I reckon you'd be better than good".........????????????????Can you say that????
And again, Goomeri has given me another cracker.... We stopped at the little coffee shop there - The Pumpkin Pie Cafe, and when I asked if we could have some sandwiches for the kids the girl replied "Oh sorry. We can't do sandwiches. We can only make toast." ????????????????????

Thankyou Goomeri.