Home owners again

We are now in possession of our new house, although we haven't got the keys yet. The money has been given over. Its actually quite bizarre, we discovered that the owners live in the house next door. We met them last night for our last inspection. Terry doesn't think anything of it but I feel a bit weird about it.
We are hoping to have take-aways there tonight with the girls, thats if we get the keys on time!
We have a bit of work to do, Terry's going to lay some carpet in one of the bedrooms and the laundry is desperate for an update. The old concrete tub has a crack in it and we think its been leaking for a very long time by the looks of the mould growing!
We have 10 days to be out of our rental so it makes it easier to shift. I'm going to be able to clean up the house a bit, the tenants consisted of a 30yr male, a teenage male and a very skinny teenage female. Not the tidiest people.
The house we've bought is straight across the river and 3 houses down. We live on the corner of Sidey Quay and Cridland st East and our new house is 31 Cridland St West. The girls can still walk to school and get there faster than it would be to drive and we are still close to the Cam river to feed the ducks. My main concern is our 2 cats. We'll have to keep them inside for a while and even then they'll probably return here.
I've packed a few more boxes too and will be able to unpack as we go so it won't be too overwhelming. The house has a heat pump in the lounge and a dishwasher. A huge yard, the section is 1012m.
I definately want to get a new clothesline, a cat door, a freezer and I think thats all for now. Not too much to ask.

Terry played soccer on saturday, unfortunately for him he didn't make it too half time. The girls and I were watching, I was chatting with Jo when we saw someone fall down. I didn't make too much of it until I saw it was Terry and he wasn't getting up. Now I know that its not 'cool' for a mother or a wife to rush out on the field to see what had happened. I said to Jo "Should I go out there and see what's happend, no I probably shouldn't" He didn't get up so I ran onto the field, well I walked very fast, He had rolled his ankle and people heard a crack, its the same ankle that he'd sprained a few weeks ago. The guys carried him off and we tried to work out whether he'd broken anything. Meanwhile Terry's laying there in agony. His Physiotherapist was watching the game so he came over and suggested we get it x-rayed. So into the after hours we went, 4hrs later we got home. 2hrs waiting to see the nurse, 30min waiting for an x-ray, and then an hour before we saw the doctor. There were a lot of other injured sports people there, most of them went through to the doctor then came out with a cast on. We were very happy to see that Terry sprained his ankle rather than breaking it. Later on the soccer team passed on a message through Steve that they'd be able to help us shift if we needed them. Which we don't, we have enough helpers.
Well that's all for now. Terry's home for 10min then off to physio so better go and greet him.

The countdown...

We are only 9 days from taking over possession of our new house. We're getting excited now, although we can't remember what it looks like on the inside! Terry keeps driving past the house and we can see the packing boxes inside, obviously the tenant has found somewhere.
I'm really slack, I've only packed about 4 boxes! The pictures and the books, oh and some ornaments. We still have boxes at Rachael and Neals from when we were planning to go to the USA.
This is just a quick update as the tea is cooking and we're all hungry as I forgot to feed the girls lunch today, they got off early due to a union meeting so I didn't pack sandwhiches, when they got home they got changed and we went out grocery shopping! No wonder they're hungry!
Catch ya later

An Answered Prayer

Here is an excellant example of how God works through people of any age, race or religion.

17 May 2007
Rachael phoned me this morning in a panic as she couldn't find her diary to check the times of her appointments. I know the paniced feeling well as this happens to me on a very regular basis. So I prayed with her over the phone, asking the Lord to reveal by either a picture or word that would trigger the memory of where she last put it. We hung up after that so she could continue searching. Meanwhile at home here, Aimee asked me:
"Mum who was that?"
"It was Rachael, she's lost her diary and she needs it to remember what she's doing today." I replied.
With a chuckle and backward glance at me, Aimee said
"Oh mummy its under the bed".
I disregarded what she said as a childs answer for everything that is being looked for as I am always telling them to look under the bed if they've lost something. I was putting my shoes on and could not stop thinking about what Aimee said. I kept dismissing it until finally I phoned Rach with the thought of 'she can do whatever with what Aimee said but at least I'd get some peace'.
On the phone to Rach:
"Rach after I got off the phone Aimee said its under the bed, but I think that's just what she's said because I always told them that."
"I'm just at the bed now" Rach replied, "I can't see it anywhere under there."
"Oh well, I'll let you keep looking" I hung up the phone and continued to get ready for my day.
A couple of minutes later, the phone rings.
"Oh my gosh!! Oh my Gosh!! I'm shaking!!!" Rach was basically talking faster than I've heard her before. "I was flicking the blankets around and reached my hand down under the bed and my hand touched a book and oh my gosh, it was my diary!!!!!!"
My reply "oh my gosh!!! Now I'm shaking!!" Rach then asked me to ask Aimee where Abi's plunket book is. I did ask her but she laughed and said under the pillow! But this time it was just Aimee talking as under her pillow is her favourite hiding place for her 'treasures'.

Isn't God amazing? I look at creation, and the beauty and complex wonders of the world, and I praise God, but I don't tend to expect God to answer prayer so obviously and so innocently through a child-my child. A good reminder to never under estimate God's love and power. And as far as I know Rach still hasn't found the plunket book. I hope this encourages us all to know that God our Father loves us so much that even the littlest things are provided for us. His grace knows no bounds.

Today

We are still missing the lovely warm (hot) weather of Brisbane. We are also missing Mum & Dad. Aimee has been quite sad with missing her Gran & Poppa. Not sure when we'll get back there, but with the technology we have we can talk and email and eventually when we get broadband we'll be able to use our webcam.
Terry has started working for Don. Its going okay. Change is hard for a lot of people. Not so much for me, I think that has to do with moving around lots. Not that that was a bad thing! I love to know that I had a really special childhood with lots of adventures. Terry has only lived in North Canterbury. Our holiday to Aussie was the first time he has gone outside of NZ. I reckon he found it was fun so I'm sure that bodes well for more travelling!!

I went to the library the other day and got out some books about Epilepsy. One that I'm reading is called "Understanding Epilepsy" by Neil Buchanan. Its such a good book that explains things in a way that's really easy to understand. It's opened my eyes to a few things that I didn't realise. One of them being that I forget stuff all the time, even forget to take my medication sometimes. Its a side effect of having epilepsy. With all the mucked up electricity in my brain it causes short circuits in some areas. Memory being the main one. It sounds like I'm making excuses but I'm serious. I always thought my memory loss was to do with the drugs and alcohol and then having the three girls. When I read about this in my book it clicked with me and explained a lot. Other signs are the physical ones with muscular jerks & twitches. Then there are the seizures that no one sees or realise that they're happening, the few seconds of lost time. Sometimes I feel really dumb when in conversation I suddenly go blank. Its embarrassing too. A lot of epileptics are labelled 'clumsy' and 'spacey'. With a more open society epilepsy is starting to become just as 'normal' as asthma and other diseases. Well I'll leave it at that. Please if you want to know anything about epilepsy leave a question in the comments. just remember to leave your name too.

I have to go now and get ready to go with Terry to watch him play soccer. I better make sure Aimee has shoes on this time. We went to Belfast Warehouse and discovered she had no shoes on! Her answer to this was "I didn't hear you tell me to put shoes on". She didn't hear me cause I didn't tell her too! I thought she would have known to put them on herself! Obviously I need to remember she has only been on this earth 5yrs!
Cheers for now.

Home again, home again, jifferty jiff

We arrived home about 11:30pm on the 29th April. From 29 degrees to 9 degrees is a bit of a shock to the system! In fact its just not good at all! We are re-climatising again. We do feel for the Aussie's going through the drought, we came home to 4 days of rain.

We had a wonderful time, already miss Mum & Dad. We can now imagine them having breakfast out on the patio, listening to the birds, watching the ants.

On the Friday, Dad took us to Alma Park Zoo. It was a lot like Willow Bank where we could feed certain animals. Terry took a very strong aversion to the reptiles and didn't appreciate one of the rangers mentioning the several wild snakes around the park. I'll insert some photo's of different bits and pieces. I'll put some up of Sea World too. This first photo is of a Dugong. Part cow and part seal. Its so ugly its cute! This is the Polar Bear that I fell in love with. Terry let me buy a soft cuddly toy of it. Aimee loved the animals at the zoo. She made friends with a joey. The other girls were a little shy.The lorikeets were beautiful. I was taking these photos with them just an arms length away.The dolphin show was our highlight at Sea World. I didn't get many good photos as the camera was too slow. But this was one that shows how high the dolphins were getting! Awesome show.

We saw so much and did so much that I can't share it all. We would recommend Sea World, not so enamoured with the zoo but it was a good small size for us to go round with the girls when we were tired and at the end of our week. It was also the most reasonably priced.

Some other news we can now share is that we now own another house. We went unconditional on a place the day before we left for Aussie. Its a three bedroom, brick, with huge section. We take possession 30th May. Its not far from where we're living actually. I keep saying that we could build a bridge over the Cam river opposite us and then wheelbarrow our stuff 3 houses down! Admittedly we have been under stress. I shared in my last entry about having my Grand Mal seizure at Easter. Well the Wednesday 2nd May I had another Grand Mal. About 10pm I had been brushing my teeth. Thats the last I remember then I woke to Terry comforting me and Mum Smith there helping too. This time we didn't need an Ambulance but I was very sick for awhile afterwards. Terry is so fantastic. He put his own stress aside and supported me, even holding the sick bowl for me and cleaning up. His Mum is great too, coming at that time of night, I'm so grateful that Terry has been there both times (all 3 counting the one 8 yrs ago). On Wednesday night Emily & Sarah-Jane were awake and saw me having the seizure. Freaked them out a bit, but I guess its good that they have seen it now and if it happens again they may not freak out so much. My doctor is still trying to get hold of my neurologist and so I haven't been able to do anything medication wise till they both talk. In the mean time I'm not allowed to drive (we knew that one), go for bike rides or swim unattended. Really sucks. Well that is about that I think. Enjoy the photos and keep healthy.