why I still have this blog?
Anyway time for an update. 2011 has started off with a bang!!
Literally with a bang as Daniel, Andrew and I went to the fireworks here in Bendigo on New Years Eve, then came home for a swim in the pool as it was a very hot night.
So far this year we have had lots of rain which was great for the garden, bush and our dam. Although it does still have a small leak which we will hopefully fix for good tomorrow. I can't believe how much green there is around us when I am outside. Sometimes you have to think back. I did this the other day and I remembered that when we signed to buy here, it was all brown and all there was was rock and dirt, not a bit of grass and the trees all looked so sad and droopy. Now the trees all have gorgeous green shoots and there is grass to mow!!
We had a lovely simple BBQ in the backyard with some friends for Australia Day. We realised that we should do it more often - considering it was the first time since we had moved here and that was 10 months ago - more often should be easy to achieve, don't you think?? LOL
Speaking of rain - we were very lucky to have no family or friends with any damage in all the flooding in Queensland. All my family live in Toowoomba, so hearing about that on the news was very scary. Liz had a huge terrible flood through their place the next morning which has changed the landscape completely on their 50 acres. But thank goodness, all they lost was the pump and the chookhouse along with lots of trees. She lives below the range near Toowoomba, but thankfully not the side where the horrible flood was. The water through their place was added to the water from the other side to make the big one in Ipswich and Brisbane though.
A week later when all the scary stuff in Queensland seemed to be over. Liz's eldest son, Joel, fell 30 metres down a cliff face on the edge of Toowoomba. We are all very glad that he is alive. It could have easily been the other way. He was stuck (with his best mate - who had scrambled down to be with him) for nearly 4 hours until a helicopter could whinch him out. Then he was flown to Brisbane with Care Flight. Amazingly in a week, he has had 2 operations on his spine and is now able to sit for awhile. He has some feeling in his legs, so that is a good sign. He is now in the Spinal Unit of the PA Hospital in Brisbane until he is able to look after himself. Liz says that she is so glad he is such an easy-going guy as he is coping really well with it all. He will have his 18th birthday next Friday.
Now onto some exciting news - Gregory will find out on Monday if there is a place for him at the Bendigo Campus of LaTrobe University in the Bachelor of Arts Course. Homeschooling works!! Even if he doesn't get a place now, although they think it is very likely, he can apply mid year. His friends are all off at Uni, TAFE or working so he is really looking for something. Fingers crossed, it will happen and another phase of his life will begin. So cool, to think he will only turn 17 the week before Uni starts. He hopes to do part-time for a couple of years here, so he is still at home, then transfer to a Uni in Melbourne.
More exciting news - Daniel attended Brickvention in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and was mesmerised by all the Lego and the "grown-ups" who are still into it. We need to investigate a career path for him that leads to working for Lego, I think. We often laugh about how we went to see the Lego Man in the Barossa Valley and how Daniel has a collection to rival his now and could open a showroom! Perhaps a shed down the front of the house - $5 to see the collection. What do you think?
Righto - that's the good and yucky news for now. Off to make sure the plants can survive the 39 degrees it is going to be here on Sunday. They all need little umbrellas.
