3 years.

It's three years today since my Dad passed away. Feels like forever ago mostly, then some days it seems it was yesterday that I was a young girl riding in the truck or tractor with him

{Dad with Kelsea at about 6 months}

Last July Jared and the children and I were fortunate enough to go to the Temple with Stan, Lisa, Halle, Nan and other family to have Dad's work done and to have him sealed to his parents. Now I know he can Rest In Peace at last. 'Til we meet again xx.

We drifted back through childhood days and shared each others grief,
Realised so quickly now how life can be so brief.
When we are born we start to die its He who calls the turn, and when he called you home 'ol mate He called you Much too soon.

Oh the dream I had of you old mate forever will remain, to me you are my earthly loss,
To Him you're Heaven's gain.
As I stand beside your earthen mound no words can quite express,
Just how I feel but memories mate,
To me are Heaven blessed.

So long 'ol mate 'til we meet again, rest in perfect peace.
Your mem'ries locked inside my heart,
My thoughts will never cease.
I know you cannot answer mate but to me it always seems,
WE can live a part of life again, even though its in our dreams.

{Lyrics from "Dreaming" one of the Slim Dusty songs Tyler Chose for Dad's funeral. The other one was "The man who steadies the lead" and "O my Father"}

{At Kelsea's blessing September 2006}

what to do?

So what do you do when.....
Your one year old {who is obsessed with power points} can get the little pluggie things out??

He has also recently become very interested in shoes and will bring me a shoe {this morning it was Kelsea's dolphin one} to put on his foot. He is a very cooperative little boy when it comes to putting on his shoes and will lift up his feet to help out.
But....he is a terror when it comes to nappies and it takes both of us to hold him down {I have lots of fun when Jared is at work}.

(Eamon enjoying his first taste of honey - he licked it clean off the sao!)

A day of drama!

So on Thursday I was in a store with the children and pulling Eamon along he does the usual "drop" down that the Kids all love to do so much. This time pulling him back up - something pulled in his shoulder....i didn't realise this though and he became grizzly so picking him up I tried to keep looking around and he bit my shoulder! I think - oh he must have a tooth pushing through..but no amount of peek-a-booing from kels would keep him cheered for long. I soon realised he wasn't using his left arm. So when I got home I made an appointment with a new doctors surgery (mine was booked til Monday). Very greatful to get in that day I dropped Kels off with Nicki and took the little fella to this doc. Well She sent me to have an xray - so we picked up the girl and the dad and went to the hospital where he SCREAMED so bad (Jared took him in while i sat with Kels, and he hated the dark and noise etc). The radiologist chatted to us and said there was nothing broken (or dislocated - which is what the doc thought) and he moved his arm in the socket a lot with no crying. So they sent us home. Eamon didn't use his arm still - it just hung limp by his side...he just would walk around and not use it then all of a sudden yesterday evening he decided it was better and has been fine ever since. I guess kids know how to let themselves heal though! AND he slept til 6 this morning making it an almost 12 hour stint!! {so glad he figured out how to sleep again I was worried he was turning into another bad sleeper!}

Julie &Julia

So we really loved this movie. Meryl Streep was SO funny!

Love in a Torn Land

Nope it isn't the title of a trashy Mills and Boon novel!!

I recently borrowed this book from my mother in law and thought it would be a hard book to get into. Boy was I wrong. Its the story of a Iraqi Kurdish woman named Joanna Al-Aksari Hussain. She grew up in Baghdad as the daughter of an Iraqi father and Kurdish mother. The story tells of the atrocities that the Kurdish people were subjected too. I guess I am very sheltered here in Tassie. I knew about Saddam Hussein's attempt at genocide against the Kurds but really that was it. I didn't realise however that about 100,000 Kurds were murdered and that after they dropped the chemical bombs on the villages and cities of Kurdistan the Iraqi military went in and blew up the buildings then bulldozed them so the people who had fled the attacks had nothing to come back to. Joanna fell in love with a Peshmerga (a Kurdish freedom fighter) and after a mills and boon like start to their story (she loved him, he ignored her broke her heart and years later wrote her all these love letters, she ignored him then EVENTUALLY they got together - fairytale stuff!!!!) they lived in a Kurdish village that was routinely bombed every afternoon. Anyways after the chemical attacks Joanna was partially blinded, and her husband Sarbast and his cousin and herself climbed over the massive mountain (i am pretty vague on the details) into Iran where even more hardship awaited them. I just can't describe all the hardships, trials, terror and horror that they faced. The evil that is in the world really is frightening. I am so greatful i was born in Australia. This book made me think differently about all these refugees that seem to be flooding into our country, not that I ever thought they shouldn't be here, but we have no idea what some of these people are fleeing from - I mean who would willing take their kids across the ocean in a dilapidated boat?

ANYWAY! I recommend this book to anyone - it has so much in it and I couldn't put it down (though i had to due to the recent gastro bout!) A real tribute to patriotism and the power of Love!

Fresh FLATHEAD, Sleeping Through and vomit.....

Yesterday Jared went fishing with Eden at Port Sorell. We were very excited when he came back with some flathead and some other fish that we put in the freezer. So we had the fish, bought some chips and made a salad....really yummmm. Flathead is my absolute FAVOURITE seafood.

Kelsea for the first time in over 12 months I am thinking, slept the night through. Well til about 5:30am. I can't remember the last time she woke up from her own bed. For the next hour (she came in to our bed) she kept asking is it morning yet??

AND Eamon got sick!! It was his first gastro-like illness. He threw up before bed then also a few times in the night, so we kept him with us - then we both woke up around 2:30am from a REALLY rank smell....he had really bad diarrhea. So got him up washed all the bedding and clothes and him and he had a bottle and went back to sleep. he kinda gagged a few more times but nothing too bad and woke up htis morning jumping on me like I was a trampoline......hoping it doesn't spread to anyone else ...! {my house reeks!!!}

Easter conversations

My attempts to explain the symbolism of Easter eggs this morning.

Me: The empty egg is like the Empty Tomb when Jesus was resurrected.
Kels: Oh did He eat all the chocolate?
Me: Err.. no there wasn't any chocolate
Kels: Oh Maybe the Nephites ate it.
Me: Yeah Maybe.

Kelsea is slowly retaining all the things she is learning about - not all are connecting in the right places! Her prayers are really relevant now and she always is really thoughtful {unless she is cranky;) }.Hoping that one day Easter means to her what it does to me - that is more than the big bunny and the egg hunt - she already loves her Elder Brother and I hope she always will.

{ Thanks Lisa for the photos ;) }