A Special Birthday

My twin sis Meg came over from Sydney recently especially to travel with me to our hometown to celebrate the 40th birthday of one of our oldest school friends, Erin.
Erin has CF too, and looks bloody amazing for a lass on the lung transplant waiting list! In fact, during her party, as she sat surrounded by family and friends, she got the call to say new lungs were waiting for her in Auckland! There were many tears shed amid the great excitement - not a party I will ever forget. With her entourage and husband, Erin later went to the airport and was on the plane for Auckland, but before it took off another call came to say the lungs were damaged so the transplant was off - wow - more tears but Erin remained upbeat and completely inspirational. She headed back to the party and we saw her again the next morning for a BBQ at her bro's house. Go Erin - you rock!!!

mucking around at Makara

On a whim I took the kids to Makara Beach yesterday. It is really on our back door step - only 15 minutes away by car, but in a direction we rarely go! After a winding rural drive along narrow roads, we arrived to find many others with the same idea. No matter; plenty of rugged coastline and rockpools to explore, enough for everybody. We spent more than two hours pottering about [and climbing large rocks!] until we got tired and headed home. A highlight for the kids was finding a driftwood shelter someone had made on the beach, and 3 small carved pumice heads within. Rather intriguing that someone went to the trouble of carving them and then left them half-buried in the sand...

I love our outings - Wellington has so much to offer like this!

5 Days lost in hospital

Lockie - awoken by me taking his photo as he lay dozing in his bed in the Children's Ward following admission for a partial bowel obstruction. Good timing [well sort of] as this all took place during the second week of the school holidays - less to cancel and work around as we juggled being there in the hospital with Lockie, and being at home for Bella.

Needless to say, Fraz and I only glimpsed each other briefly, in passing, during this time but we both pulled together when it counted and got through it. Lockie was in for 5 days [one of us stayed in each night beside him], and when he was 'going' again he bounced back quickly and we were out of there as fast as possible ;) During his stay he had a nasogastric tube fitted, and IV fluids to keep him going - nil by mouth for 4 days! The medical staff still can't decide the true cause of this problem so they gave us a BIG bottle of Lactulose to keep him going regularly and minimise blockages in the future - sorry if this grosses you out, reader!! All part of the fun of being the parent of a child with cf... Lockie was out in time for the new term of school and several days later it's all a distant memory. One good thing to come of it is that I intend to become a Volunteer to man the Ronald McDonald Family Room at the hospital - a wonderful peaceful haven for parents and family members of sick kids in the wards, where they can go for coffee and food, a shower, a nap, or a rest in a quiet atmosphere, away from the bleeping and constant noise of the wards.

when the sun won't shine...

Week one of the two-week school holidays is nearly over. We didn't care that the forecast sun never showed up, we were sick of sitting around the house so after lunch we ventured out and drove to the Botanical Gardens, Wellington, NZ. For the next 3 hours we wandered around the entire Gardens - although there were plenty of paths we chose to leave for next time. The kids loved exploring and posed for numerous photos very patiently! It sure beat watching dvds at home with the heater on and despite the 11 degrees outdoors we didn't feel the cold at all - it helps that the Gardens are very very hilly ;)
Hopefully my cherubs will sleep well tonight! [Have been invited to 2 birthday parties tomorrow - on top of two we went to a few days ago!]

Who's up for a party?

They may be smiling sweetly in this photo but my two darlings are normally busy annoying the c**p out of each other! And the next two weeks of school holidays are looming... Bella has been invited to 4 birthday parties of friends turning 5. Lockie is able to come along to two of them, which helped placate him as he was quite jealous!

The weather is a bit gloomy - we have forgotten what a sunny day looks like :( And it's quite cold, but you get that with Winter. I am planning to apply draught-stripping to the back door and bedroom windows today. And maybe do some baking - that's one way to warm the kitchen anyway. Boy is my life a bundle of laughs!!!

Budding Ballerina

At 4 1/2 years of age, Bella is very much into dancing so I started her off with ballet classes, four weeks ago and she just LOVES it. It helps that she goes to 'Fairy Ballet' and there is a lot of talk about fairies and the occasional brandishing of wands and wearing of fairy wings :)

In this picture she is wearing her ballet outfit for the first time as it took me a while to get organised and get all the various bits and pieces. As a kid I never thought much of dance as a discipline but even now I love to dance for hours [under the influence mainly] whenever I get the chance.

Lockie is understandably unimpressed with the attention she gets when she shows us the steps she has learned - the mums are discouraged from watching the class although I do peek when I can.

It is all so innocent and sweet, in a world where this is increasingly rare.

What happened to 2008?

Oops! It seems that I got a bit side-tracked in 2008 - damn you Bebo and double damn you Facebook!! Anyway, I have been inspired to jump back on the Blogger bandwagon by a friend [Kitchen 37B], whose lovely blog really touched me :)

Here are my lovely family whom I love to pieces, and who continue to enlighten me, frustrate me, delight me and surprise me. I took this pic on my husband's birthday at breakfast time.

I wonder if anyone remembers I am here? Who will read this... what will I write about to keep it interesting? Will now go sleep on it.