Just to catch up a bit...
So the kids finished school ok. Glad it;'s over they were! Jaana's and Mika's report cards were great! Jade's and Trent's well...not great. Jade thought hers was 'pretty goo' ... yea for a sp'ed! Jade is not a sped...she is very intelligent...just doesn't care enough anymore. trent had a problem seeing, so now that he has glasses hopefully his grades will pick up. He actually enjoys reading now so that's a start!
Jade and I clashed one too many times and now lives with her father and step-mum. I have too many conflicting feelings about all this to make a comment... all in all though - we are all much better off and happier. I know that sounds really terrible because I am her mother...but can I just point out a couple of things here...
Jade and I clashed one too many times and now lives with her father and step-mum. I have too many conflicting feelings about all this to make a comment... all in all though - we are all much better off and happier. I know that sounds really terrible because I am her mother...but can I just point out a couple of things here...
- She is turning 14 in February this year, she's not a baby
- I din't put her up for adoption!
- SHE IS WITH HER OTHER PARENT...how can that be a bad thing?
She didn't hug me - or even look at me - when they left. Since leaving she has changed her facebook family members - her step mother is her 'mother' ... that's great...it only hurt because she never had me down as 'mother' on FB...ever! We've hurt each other a lot over the years guess. Anyone who has known me since Jade was a babe, knows that we have locked horns since her birth...it's just the way the stars wrote it. i'm Aries/Fire Dragon...she is Pisces/Fire Ox ... anyone who knows about these things will know we are pretty much mortal enemies on this front!!! that's life I guess. No need for hostility when the fact is we don't get along!
Enough said on that.
So then we get really excited about finally going camping to beautiful Flanagan's Reserve, past Rathdowney from here. YAY!
or not...
Everything was fine and dandy but then the rains started...and just didn't seem to stop!
this is the 'meandering creek' that we normally see when we camp there...not so gentle! more like a raging murderous torrent of a river!
It actually rose up 7.5 metres, and went from being only like maybe 5 metres across and you could touch the bottom...heck you could SEE the bottom LOL! ... to being i'd say 50 or MORE metres across!!! saw a wallaby that had gotten to close to the water and drowned :(
we had to pull the tent under the tarp, because a mangey possum made a home there while we were away for a few days (we set up the weekend before Xmas, went home for a few days so Murray could go to work, then returned on Wednesday b4 xmas) so the roof was leaking too...
By boxing day I'd had enough and cried and cried "I want to go home! this isn't fun. the kids aren't having fun, the dog's depressed!" (yep, that's her curled up in a tight ball in her basket, water flowing freely like a river under her, god love 'er!
Enough said on that.
So then we get really excited about finally going camping to beautiful Flanagan's Reserve, past Rathdowney from here. YAY!
or not...
Everything was fine and dandy but then the rains started...and just didn't seem to stop!
this is the 'meandering creek' that we normally see when we camp there...not so gentle! more like a raging murderous torrent of a river!
It actually rose up 7.5 metres, and went from being only like maybe 5 metres across and you could touch the bottom...heck you could SEE the bottom LOL! ... to being i'd say 50 or MORE metres across!!! saw a wallaby that had gotten to close to the water and drowned :(
we had to pull the tent under the tarp, because a mangey possum made a home there while we were away for a few days (we set up the weekend before Xmas, went home for a few days so Murray could go to work, then returned on Wednesday b4 xmas) so the roof was leaking too...
By boxing day I'd had enough and cried and cried "I want to go home! this isn't fun. the kids aren't having fun, the dog's depressed!" (yep, that's her curled up in a tight ball in her basket, water flowing freely like a river under her, god love 'er!
Murray was very sympathetic to us, he on the other hand was ok with it all still on Boxing day (that was day 4 of the rainy camping!) So pack up we did...only the valuables. We left the tent and tarp and beds etc, just secured it all. We had every intention of returning when the weather fined up. We didn't intend to return an hour later when we realised my car wouldn't SWIM over the bridges and flooded roads :'( so we tried again on the Monday to leave...again no go....
then Monday night we ate soup for dinner, at 6pm. (By this point Murray had had enough too.) The rain had stopped, so we went to bed at 7 praying the rain would not return till we were gone. We knew if the rain would just stop for a few hours even the roads would free up a little... I told the kids time goes faster when we sleep...and it did. As soon as our eyes were open we were securing our belongings again into the tents and we were GONE! thank the gods! we were going home! then we got all the way to Jimboomba -
some 15 kms from home and Mt Lindesay Hiway was flooded OMFG! lucky Murray knew the back roads and we came out at Camp Cable road ... HOME AT LAST!
Yea. great. home. washing machine and dryer going for 10 hours a day three days in a row...still raining at this point, and everywhere int he world it seemed!
then home was about to be flooded too. perfect.
The amounts of rain we have had is just mindblowing. They are opening the flood gates AGAIN at Wivenhoe dam...but y'all don't go using it from the taps now! still the restrictions stand (can't fine people without restrictions right? lol)
This is the 'flood threat' of our home...
It actually came right up to be licking at the top of the brick under the door!
This is around our yard, not at it's worst - I had no time to take photos at the worst - I was busy digging trenches and diverting potential disasters!
then Monday night we ate soup for dinner, at 6pm. (By this point Murray had had enough too.) The rain had stopped, so we went to bed at 7 praying the rain would not return till we were gone. We knew if the rain would just stop for a few hours even the roads would free up a little... I told the kids time goes faster when we sleep...and it did. As soon as our eyes were open we were securing our belongings again into the tents and we were GONE! thank the gods! we were going home! then we got all the way to Jimboomba -
some 15 kms from home and Mt Lindesay Hiway was flooded OMFG! lucky Murray knew the back roads and we came out at Camp Cable road ... HOME AT LAST!
Yea. great. home. washing machine and dryer going for 10 hours a day three days in a row...still raining at this point, and everywhere int he world it seemed!
then home was about to be flooded too. perfect.
The amounts of rain we have had is just mindblowing. They are opening the flood gates AGAIN at Wivenhoe dam...but y'all don't go using it from the taps now! still the restrictions stand (can't fine people without restrictions right? lol)
This is the 'flood threat' of our home...
It actually came right up to be licking at the top of the brick under the door!
This is around our yard, not at it's worst - I had no time to take photos at the worst - I was busy digging trenches and diverting potential disasters!
I know the last few pics don't look bad...and they aren't really, but the one that has a river you can see behind the lattice? well that river was a real RIVER last week, about two metres wide and up to my knee deep! COPIOUS amounts of water with no where to go but into Murray's shed! so I opened the back door of the shed to let the water out then go tto work first diverting the river to go out past the shed, using planks of wood, funnily enough it worked! then I dug trenches in front of the shed to drain away what was lef there.
this is the front of the house, now that the gutter had fallen I had to dig trenches here too...the place looks just depressing :(
this is the area into the carport... can't use it or the car will sink!
and this IS the carport..
The only reason I did it was because...well Murray was at work, and even if he was home...this was him on New Year's Day...
His hand started to swell on the middle knuckle a coupld of days before NYE. on NYE it was reeeeeally painful, and he doesn't have a lot of feeling in that arm because of a previous injury that had damaged a lot of nerves. took him to the GP on Saturday, he sent us straight to QEII hospital, who of course had no surgeons on that day being new year's day, so they put in a canula and sent us to Princess Alexandra Hospital...yea you read it right - QEII PUT IN A CANULA (that's the thing for the drip, into the vein...making it an 'open vein' !!) and sent us away - how unprofessional! anyways. the lab reported no culture growing in 48 hours, so we have no idea what bacteria caused it, as it wasn't caused by any injury nor insect bite... well it's getting better now, and he has an offsider to help him on deliveries, Murray is ok to drive but can't lift anything for three weeks.
We have also given away smoking. When Murray cme out of the anaesthetic, he almost died. He told me he could hear the Dr say 'we're losing him' his oxygen level had dropped to 23%. So we haven't smoked since then. I haven't even wanted one, there is no craving it's bizarre! Murray on the other hand, isn't coping very well. He was a pack a day smoker though - I only had a few a day. He had two yesterday because he was gettng the shakes. It helped and he is being really strong, he hasn't bought any...I told him I had thrown his packet away last weekend but I knoew he wouldn't handle it and I kept them for emergency LOL. I will admit I lit one when the gutter that I'd just spent two hours cleaning out (they had top soil in them - never been cleaned in FOREVER!) had collapsed and that broke me...but as soon as it was lit it was put out because I almost puked! and that's a good thing!
this is the front of the house, now that the gutter had fallen I had to dig trenches here too...the place looks just depressing :(
this is the area into the carport... can't use it or the car will sink!
and this IS the carport..
The only reason I did it was because...well Murray was at work, and even if he was home...this was him on New Year's Day...
His hand started to swell on the middle knuckle a coupld of days before NYE. on NYE it was reeeeeally painful, and he doesn't have a lot of feeling in that arm because of a previous injury that had damaged a lot of nerves. took him to the GP on Saturday, he sent us straight to QEII hospital, who of course had no surgeons on that day being new year's day, so they put in a canula and sent us to Princess Alexandra Hospital...yea you read it right - QEII PUT IN A CANULA (that's the thing for the drip, into the vein...making it an 'open vein' !!) and sent us away - how unprofessional! anyways. the lab reported no culture growing in 48 hours, so we have no idea what bacteria caused it, as it wasn't caused by any injury nor insect bite... well it's getting better now, and he has an offsider to help him on deliveries, Murray is ok to drive but can't lift anything for three weeks.
We have also given away smoking. When Murray cme out of the anaesthetic, he almost died. He told me he could hear the Dr say 'we're losing him' his oxygen level had dropped to 23%. So we haven't smoked since then. I haven't even wanted one, there is no craving it's bizarre! Murray on the other hand, isn't coping very well. He was a pack a day smoker though - I only had a few a day. He had two yesterday because he was gettng the shakes. It helped and he is being really strong, he hasn't bought any...I told him I had thrown his packet away last weekend but I knoew he wouldn't handle it and I kept them for emergency LOL. I will admit I lit one when the gutter that I'd just spent two hours cleaning out (they had top soil in them - never been cleaned in FOREVER!) had collapsed and that broke me...but as soon as it was lit it was put out because I almost puked! and that's a good thing!
we won't be having visitors for a while...
this is our driveway...what's left of it! and this is only the worst part of it. It's pretty much a wreck all the way up. Our next door is the same, just a huge canyon all the way. SCARY! a small car would simply vanish.
And yes, I know could whine all day about our troubles and problems, knowing well that there are hundreds of families out there in much worse situations...but like I was taught...my issues to me are just as important as other people's are to them...
I am doing what I can to help those people worse off than us. I will be donating clothes, and scrap supplies. Also I will keep an eye out for other things I can do to help... Lucky Murray has a 4WD - my bets are on my car not moving for at least another two weeks...the ground is just too soft!
this is our driveway...what's left of it! and this is only the worst part of it. It's pretty much a wreck all the way up. Our next door is the same, just a huge canyon all the way. SCARY! a small car would simply vanish.
And yes, I know could whine all day about our troubles and problems, knowing well that there are hundreds of families out there in much worse situations...but like I was taught...my issues to me are just as important as other people's are to them...
I am doing what I can to help those people worse off than us. I will be donating clothes, and scrap supplies. Also I will keep an eye out for other things I can do to help... Lucky Murray has a 4WD - my bets are on my car not moving for at least another two weeks...the ground is just too soft!
I have moved into Jaana's old room now, as she moved into Jade's old room. My room is a craft room, and I am so thankful for it!!! I just love having my own space that I do not have to share!! WOOHOO!!!!
Anyways, there's the epic update. There is a few other little things, like Murray and I both have reading glasses now, so Mika is the only one in our household that hasn't got them, and my guess is he doesn't need them, although his eyes will be checked early this year.
Well I guess that's it for now. When the days brighten up I'll be able to take better photos of my art and scrapping I've been doing!
Wait...one more thing...we have to have our hot water system replaced...it's about 2012 years old and has leaked...so now the carpet in our hallway is wet because...yep the hot water system lives in a cupboard down rthe hallway...not outside or in the laundry like NORMAL houses ohhhh no...not this house!! such a gorgeous house though! the real estate keep offering us the option to move but I just can't...I refuse to let it beat me for a start! and I love it so much!!!
I have also uploaded a tutorial on how I make flags. Check it out
Till next time! xxx
Anyways, there's the epic update. There is a few other little things, like Murray and I both have reading glasses now, so Mika is the only one in our household that hasn't got them, and my guess is he doesn't need them, although his eyes will be checked early this year.
Well I guess that's it for now. When the days brighten up I'll be able to take better photos of my art and scrapping I've been doing!
Wait...one more thing...we have to have our hot water system replaced...it's about 2012 years old and has leaked...so now the carpet in our hallway is wet because...yep the hot water system lives in a cupboard down rthe hallway...not outside or in the laundry like NORMAL houses ohhhh no...not this house!! such a gorgeous house though! the real estate keep offering us the option to move but I just can't...I refuse to let it beat me for a start! and I love it so much!!!
I have also uploaded a tutorial on how I make flags. Check it out
Till next time! xxx
1 comment:
OMG Heidi - you poor thing, you have been through a lot!!
Here's hoping the New Year brings you good luck!
Hugs
xoxo
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