Friday funnies.

A ringer from a huge cattle station in outback Australia appeared

before St Peter at the Pearly Gates.

"Have you ever done anything of particular merit?" St. Peter asked.

"Well, I can think of one thing," the ringer offered. "Once, on a trip to
the backblocks of Broken Hill out in New South Wales, I came

across a gang of bikies, who were threatening a young sheila.

I told them to leave her alone, but they wouldn't listen. So, I

approached the largest, most heavily tattooed bikie and smacked

him in his face, kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring, and

threw it on the ground.

I yelled, "Now, back off!! Or I'll kick the crap out of the lot of ya's!"

St. Peter was impressed, "When did this happen?"

"Just a coupla minutes ago..."

Have you liked my facebook page?

I am posting photos of the renovations of the lounge room every day there. It is easy to upload them from my android tablet so do it regularly.

You can go here to like Aussie Coffee Shop on Facebook. If you don't have a facebook account, you should still be able to see the photos.

Here is the latest photo with the lounges and television cabinet moved back in.

Dust everywhere.

Well the renovations continue. Today Steve has been getting the walls ready for painting. We have dust everywhere. I tried to get away from it by going into our room, only to be greeted by this:

It is all over our floor and Steve's bedside table. Now I am glad I have the left side of the bed. 

Here is the lounge room looking down from the dining room table end:

You can see how dusty the television cabinet is too. If you can't, here is a close up of it. 

I guess the walls will be really flat and perfect at the end. One day I will have less dust in my house but for now, I am glad that I  have a hubby that is interested in doing the house up. 

Tomorrow we will have a day off renovations until the evening. We need to empty the lounge room out for the sanding of the floorboards. It will be interesting keeping the children off them while we are sanding/staining and varnishing. 

Therese. 

Renovations.

We have had a lot going on here since the last post.

On Thursday, we travelled to Adelaide. We had a few things on and tied them all into the one visit. Joseph saw the Ophthalmologist and Amelia went to diabetes camp. While Amelia was on diabetes camp, Steve and I went to Hahndorf to stay. Daniel, Sam, Madeline and Brigette looked after the boys for us so that we could have sometime on our own. 

Hahndorf was wonderful. Steve and I stayed at Amble Wren Cottage for 2 nights.  It was good to spend sometime together without the children and relax away from the busy life we have. 

Since coming back, Steve has been working hard on renovating the lounge/dining room. Here are some photos from the work he has done. 

Here is Steve finishing off the replacement of the wood that was running the wrong way.

All this took 2.5 days to do. Next we need to sand the wood down, stain the wood and then varnish. The sander is coming on Monday so for now Steve is working on the computer table. 

He made this bracket to hold the computer table up. 

I was pretty impressed that he made this himself. Once it is painted and varnished, I am sure it would look really professional. 

I will post progress photos as we do them. It is much easier for me to upload to facebook so if you want to see photos each day, you can go and like my facebook page here. 

I am still alive.

Well after 2 months of no posts, I am back. I have been thinking about giving up blogging and having less time on social  networks. It is a big commitment and sometimes it just seems too hard to keep up reading other people's blogs and post on my own. I do like having a journal of kinds to look back on though and really value many of the friends I have made through blogging. I keep up with many of these people on facebook but I am not keeping the memories that my children create as much there as I do here. 

So I am back. Here are some of the things that we are up to.

This week is the second week of holidays. We  have two weeks inbetween each term in Australia. School year starts in January and we have 4 terms that are around 10 weeks long each. Next term is the last one for the year. Then we will have a 6 week break. Steve  has next term off with long service leave. With school holidays and long service leave all together, he is going to be home for 17 weeks. I am sure it will fly but I am going to enjoy it while it lasts. The plan is to do many renovations during the holidays. So far he has painted the back of the house and started on the living/dining room.

Here are some photos of the back verandah been painted. Down one end of it, the previous owners started to paint it in pink, white and purple. It wasn't the colour scheme we wanted at all. 

We did the front of the house back in 2007. Here is the post with photos. It has only taken us another 6 years to get the rest done. 

The lounge/dining room was one of the first rooms we did. It was a place that we pulled out a wall to make two rooms into one. Here is the picture:

When we pulled the wall out we found one of the floor boards was running the wrong way. We had to rethink our idea of polishing the floorboards. 

We got floating floorboards but both Steve and I haven't really liked them. Because we are redoing the room, we decided to fix up the floorboards. Steve looked at YouTube and found a way to fix them and run the floorboards the rights way. 

Photos will come when Steve has pulled up the floorboards and run them all the right way. 

As well as the floor, we are going to repaint the walls and make new curtains. We are living in a dust bowl at the moment with all the rubbing and sanding on the walls but I am sure it will all be worth it in the end. 

Weekend Wrap up.

It was Wharfest weekend in Port Augusta this weekend. On Saturday the show rides, show bags and variety stalls all set up along our local Foreshore. Steve and I took Tom, Amelia, Christopher and Joseph down there just before lunchtime. 

We walked along the wharf down to the show rides first (the children's main attraction). Joseph was a bit overwhelmed by all the people and the loud noises coming from all the rides but still decided to go on the teacup merry go round. Tom, Amelia and Christopher all went together on the Hurricane. \

Tom and Amelia also went on the Kamikaze. 

Christopher and Joseph went in the fun house. (sorry, I cannot find a video of this one). 

Today was the 130th Anniversary since the laying of the foundation stone for our original parish church. Our Bishop, Bishop O'Kelly came to say mass and we had a lunch after. 

We also had the blessing of our new St. Joseph statue. Our Joseph was one of the people to unveil the statue. It was a great celebration and we all had a lot of fun. 

Daniel is back safely from WYD, He really enjoyed his time away. We also welcomed back our Parish Priest this weekend from WYD. 

It is two weeks since Madeline and Sam left for Adelaide. We notice they are gone but we are enjoying not being so busy and having quieter days. 

Therese. 

Thankful Thursday.

It is the second week of the holidays here and I am thankful for so many things.

First, I am thankful for new quilts and covers to keep Christopher and Joseph warm this winter.

I am thankful for our quieter house and that my older three children are all living together.

I am thankful that Daniel has the opportunity to go to World Youth Day again.

I am thankful my new laundry. (pictures coming)

I am thankful that Steve and I still get out alone at least once a week. Today we had lunch together at Cafe Primo.

I am thankful for the strong wind that dried all our washing today.

I am thankful for bloglovin and been able to follow my favourite blogs.

What are you thankful for?

Therese.

Quick 7 holiday edition.

-1-

Term two finished today. The children have two weeks of school and I am so glad they are here. No more rushing about in the morning getting them all organised. 

-2-

Daniel, Sam and Madeline have found a house in Adelaide. Everything is falling into place. Madeline had an interview at Hungry Jacks in Darlington and the manager said he would look into getting Madeline transferred. She works at Port Augusta at the moment. We haven't heard anything since the interview so we are hoping she will have some news soon. 

-3-

Renovations continue through the holidays. Steve is finishing of the laundry. We started plans for our laundry so long ago that I cannot remember how long I  have been waiting for it. Over the Christmas break Steve connected water, tiled and painted walls and floors and put in the bench and trough. Today he finally put taps on. It should be finished by the end of the holidays. I think all he has to do now is the door. 

-4-

For my work on renovations, Tom's bedroom and the lounge room both need new curtains. I guess I will be sewing a bit. I am also hoping to get a matching quilt made for Tom's bed. 

-5- 

When Sam moves out, we are going to empty Tom's room completely and paint the walls. That is why I am going to make curtains and quilts. 

-6-

Christopher was going to move into Tom's room when Sam moved out and we were going to have Joseph on his own. We have changed our minds though and Christopher and Joseph will continue to share. Maybe the three of them will share in a few years time but for now we will leave Tom on his own. 

-7-

In other news, we have another new car. We had been considering selling our Carolla for a while. It is 16 years old and starting to need more and more repairs. then when we bought the Dualis we decided to stick with the Carolla and keep it. 

Since that time though, more things have gone wrong with the Carolla and we don't think it is that safe to drive to Adelaide if we need to. 

So we bought a new Mazda 2. Originally we were looking for second hand but then we discovered that Cruise Control was only in 2012 and 2013 models. It was a feature I really wanted and decided if we couldn't get a second hand one at a significant saving, we would get a new one.  We got this one last week. It is a Mazda 2 in Aquatic Blue. 

Don't forget to visit Jen and Conversion Diary for other people's 7 quick takes. 

Bloglovin

Google reader will no longer be available on July 1st. You can follow my blog on bloglovin though. Will add a link in the sidebar.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

My spouse.

Back in 2009 I did this meme. It was fun to look through and see what has changed and what is the same.

I have copied and pasted the questions and answers that I gave back in 2009 and I will add in any that are different now in blue. 

This is kind of like the 25 things - except there are pre-decided questions and it's about you and your spouse or SO not just you. Come on, play along - inquiring minds want to know! ;-)

♥ What are your middle names
Angela and Osmond.

♥ How long have you been together?
22 years. 
26 years (22 married) 

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
A couple of weeks.

♥ Who asked who out
Steve offered me a lift to a party we were both going to. 

♥ How old are each of you?
both 43.
Both 45.

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most?
Probably mine but we don't see a lot of either siblings. 
I think now we see more of Steve's sister. 

♥ Do you have any children together?
Yes. 8. 

♥ What about pets?
Dog, Cat, love birds, chickens, turtle, 
Dog, cat, chickens, gold fish, 

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Our first year in Milicent

♥ Did you go to the same school?
No

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Yes. 

♥ Who is the smartest?
Steve. 

♥ Who is the most sensitive?
Me. 

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Hungry Jacks. 
Cafe Primo

♥ Who has the worst temper?
Me

♥ Who does the cooking?
Mostly me. 

♥ Who is more social?
Me. 

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Steve. 

♥ Who is the more stubborn?
Me. 

♥ Who hogs the bed?
Neither. 
Neither still but Steve hogs the blankets. 

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Steve. 

♥Where was your first date?
Walk at Morialta falls. 

♥ Who has the bigger family?
Me

♥ Do you get flowers often?
No. 

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
doing the bare minimum. 
Now we have been trying to have a couple of nights away on our own and leave older children in charge of younger ones but since two children are moving out, we probably won't be able to do it as much. 

♥ Who is more jealous?
Neither. 

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
Probably about a year. 

♥ Who eats more?
Steve.

♥ Who does/did the laundry?
Brigette and I. 
Now Amelia and I. 

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Steve. 

♥ Who drives when you are together?
Steve.

Would love other to do this and post it on their blogs. Let me know if you are doing it and I will add a link. 

Therese

2 more leaving the nest.

Today Sam and Madeline have gone to Adelaide to look at houses to rent. They are hoping to get a house with Daniel so the three of them will be living together. The plan is to move down there in 3 weeks.

Sam is planing to work at Hungry Jacks still and Madeline is too. She is also going to be studying  fashion design part time at TAFE.  Sam says he wants to do some study but he isn't sure what he wants to do yet.

Over the years our family has changed so many times. Each time has brought challenges and blessings. Our last big change was Daniel moving out and Joseph being born. Joseph was born a week before Daniel moved to Whyalla. I missed Daniel when he first moved but I am very proud of the great young man he has become. I am sure I will miss Sam and Madeline too but I am confident they are going to grow and mature in the same way Daniel has.

Life will be a little bit quieter around here. I think we will  notice Sam and Madeline absence more so than when Daniel moved since there is two of them going. Looking forward to the change and having things a bit quieter though.

What has been happening in May?

May was a pretty busy month for us. We changed to Sunday Mass to help out with leading the rosary before mass. Usually we go on Saturday night so that we can have a family day each Sunday. It is the only day we really get to sleep in so I take full advantage of it most weekends. I stay in bed most of the morning and then we usually do something with the younger children in the afternoon .

In May Amelia turned 12 and Brigette 16. Amelia had a party at Hungry Jacks and Brigette had a night out at the movies with some girlfriends. Brigette is studying on line the tests for getting her learners permit and will probably go for the test this week. She does pretty well with the on line tests but wants to do better so that she can feel confident that she will pass.

This month, the Novita Physio was visiting Port Augusta and Joseph went along to see her. The local Physio is concerned with Joseph's knee and the amount he throws it back when he is standing. The physio that we do with Joseph will be changing a bit over the next month and we will work on getting him to hold his knee in a more natural position.

We also had diabetes endocrinologist up in Port Augusta yesterday. Tom, Amelia and Christopher all had an appointment with her. Their management is going pretty well but there is always room for improvement so we have made a few adjustments with the boys pumps and we are changing Amelia to having lantus insulin in the evening. She is only going to be on daily injections for another 3 months and will be starting pump therapy in August.

Steve and I finished Season two of Downton Abbey and started watching American Horror Story. It did have some scary things in it but over all I enjoyed the story line. We are now waiting on Season three of Downton Abbey to arrive. I am really enjoying spending time with Steve watching different series. In the past, most of our dates nights have been dinner and movie night. What I like about watching a series is talking and speculating about what is going to happen after each episode.

Weekend Wrap up.

Well another weekend has just about finished. Pretty soon, it will be time to get the children to do their evening chores and prepare for school tomorrow.

Friday Christopher was home sick. This isn't a part of our weekend but because he was here, I wasn't able to get food shopping done. This meant that I had to do it on Saturday. I originally planned to go the shops straight after mass and adoration but didn't get a shopping list done so didn't.

Amelia is turning 12 on Wednesday and we had a party for her yesterday at Hungry Jacks. It was great to leave all the mess behind when the party was over.

Steve and I did food shopping in the afternoon after the party and then we cooked tea. Saturday night Steve and I watched the last episode of Downton Abbey, season 1. I have ordered season 2 but it probably won't be here till the end of the week. I guess it is time for me to get on to some Poirot until season 2 gets here. I really loved Downton and am looking forward to watching the other seasons.

In May we are having the rosary before Mass on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Steve and I are going to be helping out with leading the rosary so we are going to be going on Sundays for this month. We usually go on Saturday night so that we can have a family day in on Sunday. It is the one day each week that I know I have nothing I have to do. For this month though, we will go on Sunday morning. It still we be a bit of a family day but our mornings will be full.

I  hope you all had a good weekend.

Therese.

Why I support Dr. Faustman.

On the side of my blog I have a picture of Dr. Denise Faustman. If you click on the link, it takes you to her web page that is to fund raise for a cure for type one diabetes.

Here is a video that explains the type of research Dr. Faustman is doing:



Since seeing this video, I am convinced that with enough support behind her, Dr. Faustman is going to be the one to find a cure for us and for others with autoimmune diseases.  The reason I think this treatment will work is because it is targeting the bad white blood cells which attack the insulin producing islets and stop the islets from reproducing. Since this is the primary cause of type one diabetes, it is what we need to reverse in the body.

I have always been against embryonic stem cell research. This isn't just because it is the killing of another soul,  but because it just hasn't shown any promise at all. Since seeing Dr. Faustmans explanation of what happens with her treatment, I know that this is where we need to look for a cure. Any cell that produces some islets isn't solving the problem of this bad white blood cell which is still present in anyone with any autoimmune disease. 

What have we been up too?

Well it is over a month since I last posted here. I wanted to get on tonight, and post one post in April.

Life has been busy with all our children but I am feeling pretty in control with looking after our three diabetic children and managing a large family.

Since my last update, Madeline has left school and started working full time at Hungry Jacks. She has been accepted into study at TAFE to do certificate 3 in fashion design. Her plan is to work full time, save some money and move to Adelaide in July as long as they have an intake. If there is no intake, she will start her studies in January next year.

We have just had two weeks of school holidays here. During the holidays, Madeline and Brigette went to Singapore. My sister lives there at the moment and is moving back in June. She flew the girls over and they had 8 days with her and her family.

Steve and I drove the girls to Adelaide to catch their plane and then we had a night on our own in Clare. We stayed at Clare Country Club. It was nice to spend some time alone.

The other holiday we had was camping in Bundaleer forest. Steve and I took our younger 4 children and we meet Daniel and our 3 nephews there. We hired a hut that we could throw mattresses on the floor and sleep. Outside we had a camp fire. It was fun to sit around the camp fire and drink endless cups of coffee, talk and play with the children.

Steve and I have been watching a few television programs together. Steve started watching The Walking Dead last year when Sam bought series one and two for him for his birthday. I wasn't interested at all in a zombie series and didn't watch it with him. He kept on telling me how good it was and how much he thought I would enjoy it. When series three finished he asked me if I wanted to watch series 1 and 2 with him. I agreed and said, when it is finished, we will watch Downton Abbey together. I sat through Walking Dead and we started Downton Abbey last week. I am really enjoying Downton Abbey and wish we had a bit more time to watch it. Since being back at school. we don't have as much time to watch series.

There has been lots more happening but I don't want to make this post too long.

Hoping to get into blogging a bit more this term and keep up with other blogs.

Therese.

A faithful Catholic women.

Last night, I came across a new Catholic women's blog. Thanks to Ebeth for linking to her.

The new blog has a great post and I wanted to spread the word also.

Read the post here. 

Here is the statement Caroline has asked us to post which I am in full agreement with:

I am a faithful practising Roman Catholic woman, who attends Mass at least once a week and who believes in and practices the Church’s teachings, specifically pertaining to matters on sexuality, contraception, abortion, marriage and the ordination of women. I believe that the Roman Catholic Church is sympathetic to and representative of the needs and concerns of women and their children, wherever they may be in the world. I would like to offer our new Pope Francis, my prayers and support and thank him for his continued protection and support of mothers and their unborn children. I fully endorse Church doctrine in relation to women’s issues.

Thankful Thursday. We have a new Pope. Giving thanks for the church.

Last night before I went to bed, I set my alarm for 4.30 because I knew that that was the time that smoke would be coming out of the Vatican chimney. I woke up pretty quickly and went to facebook because I knew that my peeps would be posting if we had a new Pope. I noticed after a couple of minutes that my conclave app had an update and it was saying White smoke coming out of the Vatican chimney so jumped out of bed and got Steve up too. We turned on EWTN and saw the Vatican chimney and the Vatican Bells ringing. We sat waiting for the announcement and then Pope Francis came out. It was quite a joyful moment for us all here. Because it was so early, I taped the program for the children to watch rather than waking them so early.

A couple of years ago, a non Catholic challenged me in my faith in God because I am Catholic. At the time, he said to  me that we could discuss anything I wanted and he would prove to me that the Catholic church was not from God and that in being a Catholic, I was not following God's plan for my life.

I challenged him with the fact that God started a church and that the Bible was a product of the church, not the church a product of the bible. We had quite a few notes back and forth about this and he showed me lots of Catholic sinners and lots of how his own interpretation of the bible contradicted some of the churches teachings. At the end of it though, he wasn't able to show me that Jesus didn't start a church because it is obvious from scripture that he did.

I am so grateful that God started the Catholic church and that the church guides us in to full truth. He promised us that the gates of hell would never prevail against her and that he would be with us always. For me, the new Pope is a sign that God is faithful in his words and that he is with us.

Therese.

Thankful Thursday.

Our new car

It is a Nissan Dualis + 2

The + 2 is for 2 small seats in the boot

The front seats. 

The boot seats. Sorry they are so dark. 

Middle Seats. 

Front passenger seat. This is the most comfortable seat I have ever sat in in a car. 

These are pictures of our new car which we picked up yesterday. We git it just in time to take Tom, Amelia and Christopher to Adelaide for an appointment with their endocrinologist.  Our other "big" car has been having some issues so we didn't want to take it to Adelaide. If we didn't get this car in time, I would have had to driven our "little" car down with the three children. Steve would have had to stay home with Joseph and it just would have been a really hard long day for all of us.
So today I give thanks that we got our car in time and that we have a nice car to drive our children in.

Consistency.

It is nearly two weeks since I last posted here. Not a good time to talk about consistency. I thought since we are half way through the term this week, it would be a good time to review how my word for the year is going. 

Back at the beginning of the year, I chose consistency for my word. I said:

I want to be consistent with prayer, the different therapies my children need and my day. I want to do everything I need to with consistency and regularly.

In looking back I see the following good things:

Joseph and I start our day out everyday with prayer or mass. On Monday and Fridays, mass is in the evenings so we go and pray the rosary at church. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, mass is in the morning so we go to mass.

Most days after mass we go to the foreshore for Joseph to do his exercises. 

Most mornings, I write up a to do list for the day. I have been pretty successful at getting everything done on my list most days. 

Been pretty consistent at getting to bed around 10.30. I am also pretty consistent at getting up and checking any of the children that need bsl tests overnight. 

the things I need to improve on:

My own personal prayer time. I have prayer time scheduled for the mornings. I need to do this more. I tend to either sleep or get up and check facebook, words with friends and email. I also have scheduled to do an examination of conscious each night but rarely do it. I spend time on computer or playing games. 

Time management. Even though I am writing a daily plan and what I want to get done, I am also spending a lot of time sitting around and not being productive. That is one of the reasons I haven't posted on my blog for two weeks. 

Homework: I want to be a bit more consistent in helping the children with their homework and be more involved in their learning. 

Limiting screen time: For me and the children. They children are suppose to only have computer/television time between 4.00 and 5.00. 

Pump uploads and recording bsl. Recording bsl and uploading pumps has never been my strong point in looking after the children's diabetes. I need to be more consistent in keeping their records and emailing pump uploads for their endocrinologist to look at. 

An interview with an eight year old

Now that you are 8, what can you do that you couldn't do before.
I can juggle and write.

Christopher shares a room with Joseph. 
What do you like about sharing with Joseph.
He doesn't get scared and I don't get scared either.

What do you dislike about sharing a room with him?
Sometimes he gets in my bed.

Do you like computer games?
Yes.

What is your favourite one?
Plants vs zombies.

What s good about being 8?
I get more pocket money.

What is bad about being 8?
I have more jobs.

What is your favourite toy? 
My helicopter.