hi how are we all? this seems to have fallen by the way side... nice to reread old p[osts tho and see what we were up to. :)

hi hi hi

hi all been a while :) - I guess we are all slack :) yay I don't feel so alone.....

Michael has just taken off for a few days to his family to see the Superbowl and then meet with the concreter who will be pouring the slab for our shed! yay it is all happening now. Hoping he will get to meet with the architect and interior designer- so far we haven't been blown away by the designers selections so its a chance to talk to her and maybe get her on our wave length. you may have checked out the house design by now- be cool to know what you think (but we won't be changing anything :) ) will attach a couple of photos of the family.

I can't belive how fast they are growing! Amber seems to be learning so much every day and Samuel has started asking (very thoughtful) questions, which is great and I can see we are going to get tougher ones quickly! AMber has quite a 'thick' mischevious streak! And she is sharp as a razor with a memory like kathy's. Poor Max is suffering, not getting walked, especially now we aer in this very hot heatwave. We are all hiding inside which has led to serious cabin fever! Samuel just went nuts yesterday and drove Skye, the nanny, quite bonkers, so as soon as Michael got home we lathered up and went down the beach which wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. and it tuckered them out a bit.

Next week Samuel starts occassional Care Monday afternoons they both start Theatre Bugs Tuesday Mornings and Samuel starts a pre-entry program Wednesday mornings, we have playgroup on Thursdays and Fridays Skye is here! The start of being very busy.

Oh we got a new TV- Michael is very pleased :)

We did some family painting on Australia Day, a tradition we started last year and hope to continue- some people have family portraits we are going to try and paint /draw together each year! Michael and I need to relax about it all though :) we think its will be a relaxing experience but then the kids get involved :)!!! really it is good fun and it will be great to see how it all progresses over the years.

I am looking forward to a few evenings just pottering around and getting my study under control- i feel like it is a wild beast that doesn't want to be tamed.

Well best look for some pictures to illustrate this.

The pictures are the kids wearing new outfits sent by Gemma, our first nanny, and the video is self explanitory! Amber has a bruise on her head from a fall she took off the top of a play car we have, straight on to concrete! she is always climbing stuff and when she is tired she falls over lots!

Hi from Toronto

Well, we are here and growing up fast.

THe house is slowly taking shape. Andrew works most weekends hammering and cutting building walls. Most of the demolition is done for the moment.

We have lots of plans but not sure how far we will get this year time being the limiting factor. Bathroom, kitchen and flooring are the main things. We also have lots of maintenance things to do to make the house ready for sale too in a few years time.

Andrew is away for two weeks from next week. I'm not sure how we will go but I guess we will survive. I'm not looking forward to it.

Better go and get some sleep.

love to all

helllooooooo

Hi all

another quicky. All great here. Samuel and I both have colds- such is life! another trip to the drs tommorow. He is at day care today and i am sure enjoying it though what a blindingly hot morning 31! cooling off now with the prospect of rain. Have attached a photo taken this morning- what a cutie if i do say so myself :)

hope all is great- dad did you read my comment to your bonsai post? sometimes it seems easier to post a comment than actually do a whole post.

I might be coming to brisbane in November for a few days as Amanda, Helen and Carol will be there for 2 weeks. If I do can I come stay?

Hope Jenny and Grandpa and Geoff all doing well. Have you heard from Cathy and Gill lately?

Was lovely chatting with you Kathy (and Thea and Andrew) yesterday- so glad you are in your home now. Would love to see photos- I checked cost of coming there next year- 2880 each so maybe not just yet- but we will.

Well thats all from me

lots of love from us here to all of you.

San Diego Holiday

Hi,

Just returned from an awesome week in San Diego. Thea loved the zoo and everything we did. While Andrew worked his little hinny off (oh apart from the day he went sailing on the bay and just happened to drop it into the conversation after returning home LATE) we played. Someone has to do it. Although it was hard work halling the kiddly winks around everyday it was worth the effort. I hear you laughing Andrew.

We went to the zoo, seaworld, the Natural History museum to see DINOSAURS, the science centre and a puppet show. One night we went to a party with a band playing and Thea jumped up on the empty stage and started dancing. Who do we know who likes to wiggle a little booty every now and then? Hmm, can't think off hand.

The rest of the two weeks here in Vancouver are consumed with prepacking preparations. I'm glad we aren't doing all the packing. Then there is the cleaning. My favourite pasttime.

Thea is enjoying her play space while she can. I hope that it wont be too traumatic for her. This summer has been a little topsy turvy for her with all the travel we have done.

Well folks that's it for now.

love

Kathy, Andrew, Thea and Aaron

Hi people

HI everyone

Whats this about Lebanon at Christmas?- you haven't said anything previously about it.

Congrats on your wedding anniversary

HEy how are the Casnnon Scotts doing? finding homes? or is that next weekend?

Samuel has been quite sick this week- which has been difficult for both of us. poor little guy has a pretty bad ear infection which we are trying to treat with antibiotics but he doesn't like to take it. Tuesday was really rough. we went to the drs monday got the diagnosis and all the meds but then he ran a huge fever monday night and was down right miserable and not sleeping (therefore neither did I). Tuesday he refused taking the medicine no matter what i tried ( he just closed his throat with his tongue if i tried the syring and if i mixed it with something spat it out!!) and my fuse was very short. I phoned the pharmasist - thinking how can they make medicine that kids don't like- asking if they had a different flavoured antibiotic but no! I eventually found that i could get him to take it out of a bottle mixed with a little yoghurt drink (same consistency and sweet) but it still takes at least an hour and its only 5mls of medicine and 15 mls of drink. Last night/today he is not drinking it all so what do you do?! I just keep trying. He also has a terrible cold, nose & chest, with a cough thats out of this world! apart from that he seems pretty happy most of the time. I know i wouldn't be.

I went out with some girl friends last night- first time since my hens and only the third time since sam was born! it was lovely- we met at a really nice restaurant and talked non stop for 4 1/2 hours! we did eat but we had to keep sending the poor waitress away because we hadn't read the menu. It was really quite wonderful. So i didn't get to bed till 12.30- very late for me.

Still no work at the office for me. Still don't like doing house work- there has to be some switch i can flick that will make me want/enjoy it.

Samuel is getting better at child care though he didn't go this week.

I have started this really nice yoga program at home called Budoken Yoga. I feel so much better when i do it.

Michael is busy busy busy with meetings with government. looks like he will be doing much more work at home nights and weekend from now till the end of the year. He had to speak to some lady from the Australian Friday for a story she was doing came out monday. SHe was trying to sensationalise the effect of the expansion on two endanged species -Michael thinks they are unlikly to be affected but they are still going to do all the studies. He said the resulting story wasn't too bad but said it is amazing how things you say can be taken out of context. Apparently the jouralists like to obtain info from FOI (freedom of Information) requests so they can say that they obtained it that way and make it look like information was being suppressed. When she said to Micahel "I have info here from an FOI" he said "well it is freely available on the web from these various sources or you can get it sent out from this place" etc. she was like oh, well, blah blah blah- they think it makes for intrigue and cover up etc in their story. And as a reader of course that is the assumption you make, well i always have- now i realise how much stuff can be changed etc , its like statistics, makes it difficult to trust what you read and hear. pretty incredible that we live in the information age and we can still be left in the dark, maybe it should be the 'miss-information age'. Anyway apart from that and a few people management things stuff is going pretty well for the project.

well thats all from here. We'll see Brisbane folk when we come up and send our love to everyone in brissy and Canada.- good luck with the home search.

lots of love
kim, michael and samuel

Hi from SA

Hi! Great idea Kathy.

This will just be a quicky- Samuel is waking.

All is great here- blue skies, Samuel is walking around- almost running it seems. He doesn't crawl at all anymore. It has all happened so quickly. The picture was taken on May 13 when Samuel was just starting to learn to walk, it is a pitty that i haven't downloaded the rest of the pictures from the camera so you can see his progress- next time. but if it takes this long to upload an image i am not sure i'll bother, oh the curse of dial up. Bummer, it won't let me do it so no photos from me oh well.

He goes to day care one day a week- well last week was his first full day and they said he actually did quite well, in comparison to the three half days previously.

welli guess thats it from here- hope you are all well and happy
love
kim