October - It's A Big Month

It was Hubbys and mine wedding anniversary on the 5th. That makes 18 years. Doesn't seem possible really.

On the 3rd it was Mr A's 14th birthday!!! Time gets away so fast. He has grown soo tall especially over the last 6 months. He has matured soo much as well. I can't believe that my little boy who had a rough start to life and would shut the world out when he couldn't cope, has embraced the world. He was a very quiet baby, very laid back (then all 3 boys were and to a large extent still are!) He didn't cut his first tooth until just before his 2nd birthday! Then proceeded to cut every tooth in the next 12 months. He was very, very sick with all this. Ear infections, throat infections, chest infections, low grade pnemonia (sp?) more ear infections. He did burst an ear drum during this time as well. He got to the stage where Mr A. & I stayed home for around 6 months. I took Mr J. to and from Kinder. Mr A. to and from the doctors and the chemist. Apart from that, we stayed at home. Once a week when my hubby came home from work, he would have tea, then drive for 45mins taking my shopping list with him, do the shopping and come home again. Once he cut his last tooth, all of this settled down. However, his speech never took off and nobody outside his brother, dad & I could understand him at all, and we were hit & miss as well.
By the age of 3 1/2 Mr A. started speech therapy that was to persist until the age of 10. He was diagnosed with global dypraxia. Speaking with him now, no one would ever guess that the most simplest of things were always so hard.
By the time he started school, the immediate family who had consistent contact with him, understood him very well. Starting school was very exciting for him and very nerve racking for me. By the time he was in 1st grade, he was also diagnosed with dyslexia. We began tutoring for this and this persists to this day!
As a young boy when things went wrong, he would withdraw into himself and shut the world out. The more you tried to talk with him when he was like this, the more he shut you out. This could last for several hours. This has become less and less as he has gotten older and we have been able to teach him how else to deal with different things, that it is ok to make mistakes - that is how we learn, that his family will always love him. That friends move away and you can make new ones. That it is ok not to be the best but to always try your best.
He is now the leader of his 6 at scouts. His scouting leaders remark how much he has grown. He is a junior black belt in Karate. He started this at age 5 to help with his co-ordination. I would stay and watch the session and translate (so to speak) what Mr A was saying to his sensai. They learnt to understand him though, and it wasn't often that I had to intervene. He still has the same sensai and shehan. All these people have helped Alex to become who he is today.

We had 13 people here on Saturday night for a birthday tea. Wouldn't have fitted any more people into our home.

This is Miss H. She is our youngest niece, turned 1 in July.

It is also Mr H's birthday this month. That's a blog for a bit later.

Have a great day all and thanks for reading to the end of my entry today.

Spring has Sprung

Spring has arrived, which means the football has finished. I have found the front yard (which means I have been tending to the garden and removing the weeds. lol.)
I am still working on the back yard, it is quite a bit bigger.
We have nearly had an average rainfall this month after so long with very little rain. The one thing that grows first and fastest are the weeds!
Here are some photos of some flowers out the front.

Daffodile, an early starter

I love Tulips in all colours.

Daphnie, My husband says when he smell the daphne, he knows that winter is over, even when we get the return of the cold spells. As a result, we have quite a few of these plants and they do smell wonderful!

Rhododendron, we have a few different colours throughout the front and back yard. This one has a couple of suckers growing which is great!

Camilla, again, we have a different colour in the back yard.

We have two standard cherry trees that were planted around 16 years ago. They are budding up and as you can see are about to burst into life so to speak. This normally means that the winds are just around the corner. Great gusting winds normally arrive just after the cherry trees bloom!

We have quite a few roses in the front yard as well, they are not ready to be shown as yet.

I will show some stitching in the next post.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day.

Grandma's Gift to Us

Hubby & I have been married 18 years in two weeks time. I was 18 1/2 when I met him but I won't say how old I was when we married. That'll give away too much information!!!! :-)

The tapestry that appears on this post was stitched by my Grandmother for our wedding present. The same Grandma whom I stitched the Russian Blue for. Grandma also stitched this tablecloth.

The tapestry depicts scenes that I love having spent my childhood on the farm with the cows and sheep and all that entails.

It hangs above our fireplace in the lounge room. I love this tapestry. I remember Grandma trying to teach me how to do this when I was a young girl...... I would get the first row right, start the next row and have the stitches going in the opposite direction!! lols.

I have chosen to post this for a couple of reasons today. One was to show you what a wonderful stitcher my Grandma is. The second is Grandma is back in hospital at the moment. She has been in and out a little bit lately. Started off with a gall bladder infection. Put her on antibiotics, watched her for a couple of days then sent her home as she was improving. Finished the antibiotics, in severe pain so back to hospital. The infection has now spread to her pancreas.
Once they have all of the infections cleared up, they will operate to remove the gall bladder.

Grandma has already survived a major operation this year when they removed a blood clot from between her skull and her brain. I am sure she will survive this one with flying colours as well!!!

Toby

It has been a while since I have shown you Toby, our Alaskan Malamute. He has grown considerably since the photo down the side.

Hubby liked Toby sitting on his lap when he was a puppy. Toby still thinks he is a lap dog, although, you don't see hubby very much anymore.

Tobi likes to think that he is human. This is him with our eldest, J. Wherever we are, he needs to be, as close to us as he can get. We sit on the coach, he should too. We need to keep reminding him that he is not supposed too.

He especially loves my hubby though. Tobi doesn't like to let him out of his sight.

Grandma's Russian Blue

I have been extremely busy for the last 18 months and my cross stitching time is suffering badly.

I thought I might post over the next couple of months show some of my stitching that I have completed over the years. I am hoping to make some more time for my studying, stitching and fun stuff on the computer, as opposed to work stuff on the computer.

The two photos here show a Russian Blue cat that I stitched for my Grandmother Bevitt. Grandma stitches and knits continously for her ever expanding family. She has 6 children, 18 grandchildren and around 13 great grandchildren!!! (still growing). Some of the great grandchildren are similar ages to the grandchildren.

Any way, I saw the chart in "Cross Stitch Gold" several years ago and bought the magazine straight away. Even though I was in the middle of something else, immediately located some nice fabric and all colours and started stitching as soon as it all arrived.

Once the stitching and framing was finished, hubby and I packed up the 3 boys, jumped in the car and drove 10 hours to where Grandma was living at the time in the Bega region NSW. She was so suprised and loved her cat. Grandma breed cats for many years. Firstly Burmese then the Russian Blues. She won many awards over the years.

Grandma has moved a couple of times since then, but the stitching still hangs in her unit for all to see.

She has been in hospital several times this year. Had sugery early in the year to remove a blood clot between her brain and her skull. Just recently again with a gall bladder infection. Hopefully it will clear up totally or she will be back in again to have that removed.

I hope you have enjoyed my Russian Blue.

Lindy

2009 Black Tie Night

We have attended our 2nd Black Tie Night with our eldest boy J. This is count the votes in the local under 16.5 afl league.

I can't believe how much he has changed and grown in the last 12 months.

Below is a photo of J and his date for the evening in 2008.

The following 2 photos are of J and his date for 2009. He is now 16.5 years and had his first shave before the evening!!!

He was definitely less nervous this year. I was a very proud mum of my boy who looked after his date wonderfully well. Opened the car door for her then closed it. We were sitting at different tables but you know how it is. You watch them as well as talk to the other people around. The meal was a beautiful spit that you go and help yourself too table by table sort of thing.
Well, J handed his date a plate, knife and fork, poured the gravy over her meat. When they got back to the table, pulled out her chair for her. My boy is growing up!!!

Oh, and he polled 3 votes for the year too!!!

It's Been RAINING

It's been raining finally!!!!

So much has happened over the last 3 / 4 weeks that I have really struggled to cope with. We have had so many fires, lost over 200 lives and over 2000 homeless. That is without stating the loss of flora & fauna both native and domestic.

We have had several fires within striking distance of where we live, one on the town limits just before Black Saturday, two within 1 hrs drive, in two different directions, one fire within 45mins drive in another direction. The only direction in which a fire never came from was Melbourne!!!

However, over the past week we have had drizzle rain on and off. We hadn't had any rain in over a month, I think longer and will correct this later. If you would like to see some photos, check out Lee-anns site down the right hand side.

I have spent most of the year wanting to cry, never so much as the last month and stories coming from the fire fields.