Jessie part 2!

After some very patient waiting, Jessie finally got her pressie from Mum and Dad (and John). As you can see, she is quite pleased with her MP4. AND she loved the box thank you Grandma and Grandpa. I think her statement was, "I love that box, green is my favorite colour!" So Annie, you are in good company. Trust you are all well. We are hoping that camp will still go ahead today after the news and events of yesterday. That is currently the plan and if all stays calm we will, although they have closed all the schools and university's. Will let you know if we get there!! Love to all.

Jessie's Birthday Tea and Anzacs

Hi guys. Well, we made Anzac biscuits and we ate Anzac biscuits and we educated a number of people about what an Anzac and an Anzac biscuit are!! Trust you all had a good day. Jessie had her birthday tea today as I get home late tomorrow. Tata, Jido and Amou Victor came as well as a neighbour friend. She will have a girly sleepover next weekend with some other girlfirends.

Big thank you too, to Grandma and Grandpa for the money and books. She will get the other bit tomorrow with her pressie from Mum and Dad! That will have to be part two.

Lots of love!

Test run

Just checking to see if we can get this to work. seems to be OK although a bit slow to load. Have a busy week coming up with BAS reports in by thurs. Talking at the Dawn Service on Wed, A funeral at Willowie on Thurs. afternoon as well as keeping an eye on the farm as Darryl has gone to perth for a wedding. Teas ready so better go and get this published

Cheers everybody.

New Blogger

Sometime in the last few days Blogger has got it's act into gear, and has subtly migrated our blog to New Blogger. This means that you'll all need to start logging on with your Google id (which (I think) needs to be an email address.) The main advantages of the new Blogger are the use of labels to help find things, and a more useful archive. I hope it works for everyone.

Some pictures of our week away.

For the record this week we went to Orroroo on Tuesday [that is where we received our lovely gifts from Grandma and Grandpa as well as the Masri family, thankyou VERY much. The kids and I also went and looked at the new born lambs with Grandpa and Natalie enjoyed wearing the flower girl dress from mummy and daddies wedding - thanks Jessie].
Then on Wednesday we traveled down to Nanna and Grandpa in Victor (with a stop over at the Morton's on the way) [While with Nanna and Grandpa we enjoyed an excellent trip on the train to Goolwa and back as well as fish and chips down the street. Stuart and I were very thankful to get out on Thursday night to the cinema and see Hot Fuzz].
Friday we traveled to Adelaide where we stayed with the Hogben family [Where Friday night Stuart and I went out for an ode to Isabelle evening and then Saturday we had lunch in Centennial Park before having time at the grave, and then we went to the zoo for the afternoon.
Sunday we woke up jumped in the car and were rather surprised to be home by 2pm!!!
Everything is unpacked and we're feeling rather relaxed (I may even get out to church tonight!).
Those of you who were not with us on Saturday were missed but your thoughts and prayers were appreciated.
Love and hugs, Debbie.

Thanks Masri Family

Thank you Lindy for your kind words and thoughts. Kerryn Kindly printed out your Rose pictures so that I could take them to Isabelle's garden. Here is a picture of your gifts in the 'garden' plus the kids, Stuart and I there on Saturday afternoon. Heather bought some balloons for us to let go (the kids are waving goodbye to a balloon) which was fitting.

Was lovely to go to the zoo with everybody (Ian and Karen, Brocklehursts, Rob and Family and Kerryn and Annie) and all in all I think the day was as good as can be expected.
We miss Isabelle, but we are proud to celebrate Isabelle.

Thinking of you!

This is a special message for Debbie, Stuart, Natalie and Calvin.

I had hoped to be able to talk to you this week but I missed you at Mum and Dad's and I trust that you are still enjoying your break in Victor now. I just felt that I needed to let you know how much we are thinking of you and Isabelle, and will be particularly on Saturday. I think it is lovely how you are planning to commemorate her day and we are with you in thought and prayer.

The roses are from our garden and if I was there, I would have put some for her. This will have to be from us instead.

Lots and lots of love and hugs from us all.

Lindy and family xxxx

These are the two photos that would not post last time!!

Cheers

End of the holidays

Well, as I mentioned to Dad in the text, I was very pleased to get back to work and routine after the holidays. I don't think I have ever gotten to the end of a break and felt so tired! However, after our four days in Tyre, (with half of Beirut as well!) we had a day and night retreat at Schnellar Guesthouse in the Bekaa valley with all the staff from the orphanage. The photos show our room, somehow the kids and I got given the suite!! Very nice, and the view from our window in the morning. We also drove down to the very south of the lake to the dam and there are a couple of shots there. It was good fun, and I had a very timely, gentle reminder that I can take time to listen to God, as well as running around being busy! We had teaching from the verse in Micah 6:8 Act Justly, Love Mercy and Walk Humbly. It was excellent.

Back in Orroroo

We are back home trying to get through the mountain of mail and the 125 Emails. Gus informed me about 2 hours after we got home that there was a Church Leadership meeting thurs. night so it was straight back to work. We really enjoyed our time in KL the Twin Towers is a very impressive structure. Looked great at night this photo was taken from the 26th, floor of our hotel. The photo of the monkey was on a trip to Batu cave which is a Hindu sacred site. We did 3 tours a city tour Sat afternoon, a day trip to Melaka on Sun. and a country tour mon. morning. Will try to put up a few more photos later. Thanks for your photos Lindy.

Easter Egg Hunt

We also had a picnic and easter egg hunt in the forest last Saturday. Here are those pics!!

Cute Peeps

I was given some photos yesterday by Nig, that he had taken with the kids at a play park a few weeks ago. I thought that some of them were so lovely that I had better put them up. LOL

More photos

Tired but still here!

Here are some photos of fridays service witch had the "stations of the cross", also John and I at the first trip to Maggis plus the "Orroroo lake!"

:( They're gone!

Well Mum and Dad left this morning. Though it was very hard to say good bye, not knowing when I will see them again, it was so wonderful to have them here for such a lovely long holiday. We had some good times to make some happy memories and it was so nice to see them with my kids, who miss out on having Grandma and Grandpa around. I hope you guys at home appreciate having them nearby (I'm sure that you do) and that you will enjoy being together again soon. These last few photo's were taken this morning just before we left the house to say goodbye to Wadih and go to the airport. Thank you so much for coming Mum and Dad. I love you both so much and appreciate the effort that you made to come and spend some time here. I hope you get home rested and refreshed, ready to get back into life again. Lots of love to all the family, love you all. Lindy.

Calvin's first day at kindy (Occasional care actually)

Calvin went to occasional care today for 2 1/2 hours. Unfortunately the kindy that Natalie went to does not offer OC so we had to look for one that did and we think that we made a pretty good choice (well, Stuart made a good choice if I'm honest! Well done). Calvin seemed to have a good time and there were LOTS of boys to play with. The teacher was pleased with how he went and Calvin was certainly happy (although pretty tired) when we picked him up. Was nice that daddy had a meeting at the district office and so was able to come with me to pick up Calvin, which was a nice surprise for the boy. He even made his own rabbit and got an easter egg to munch on his way home. Now mummy just needs to work out what she is going to do with this bit of space each week!

Debbie.

Fun at the beach

Twice this weekend we went to the beach to do some bike riding. On Saturday daddy rode his bike to the beach and I took the kids (and their bikes) in the car and we enjoyed and nice picnic tea there. Then Sunday Stuart rode to the beach with Tony and again I took the kids down and we enjoyed milkshakes by the water (completely gorgeous day). Then while the boys rode home the kids discovered the joy of riding very fast down small hill in the park (took some rather funny video). These pictures are from Sunday.

Hope that the rest of you were able to enjoy the lovely weather this weekend.

Debbie.