Not a lot of news at the moment - or so I thought :)

On the 10th April we were camped at Inglewood, Queensland and Darryl said he wanted to take me out to dinner  :) - so we went for a walk down the main road and found a great little cafe - Dorries Takeaway - who do Gluten Free meals.  Yee ha.... Lovely crumbed fish with sweet potato wedges and salad. YUM.  Darryl had ordinary fish and sweet potato wedges and Buster was with us the whole time.  Was lovley sitting in the garden beside the Cafe.  [The other cafe that we have found that offers GF options is on the main road at Nanango in QLD].

Friday 11th we awoke and decided to head to Jimboomba and spend some time with the grandchildren as they are on school holidays.  We arrived just on lunch time and had a great lunch.
Spent quality time with Beckie and the three oldest children before 'Lucky Last' woke from his sleep. Ben managed to call in on his way to Kooralbyn and it was great to hear about his drive up north and his stay at Nebo.
We then spent some time with him when Mum, Brad and Gemma went up to the shops.
We decided to stay the night so that we could also spend some time with Matt - which was good.

Saturday we packed up just before lunch and headed homeward.  Parked the van on the verge and then headed off to Ben's place to have some birthday drinks with Daniel.  His birthday wasn't until Monday but was great to catch up with him over a couple of drinks and a great BBQ dinner.

Sunday we got out and tidied the garden and started doing the mowing before it rained --- yep we had an inch in 24 hours - which will do the garden good.  We will need to tend to the garden once the ground dries out a bit.  There are a few trees that need trimming back but will have to see how we go there as we only have the green-waste bin to put it into.
Our clothes line needs replacing as a palm frond fell on it a couple of months ago and the rotary part of it is sitting at an awkward angle and is making it difficult to hang the clothes - thank goodness for the extend-a-line under the patio.  We are trying to see if we can just get the rotary part - as the base is in 20kg of concrete and I don't really feel like trying to get that out of the ground. :)

Monday I got stuck into some sewing of the quilt that I am making for 'Lucky Last' and it is coming together well.  It is a 'quilt as you go' quilt so working with manageable sized pieces which are quilted and then joined together with bias binding on the back.  Managed to get all our washing done and dry - so can repack the van.

Today we went and had our 6 monthly bloods done and did some shopping to re-stock the pantry.  It is amazing how the cost builds up :(.
As we were returning from the blood tests we noticed a marked wheel wobble in the front so called into Dunlop Tyre service at Victoria Point and had a wheel balance attended.  The drivers side had 10/30 and the passenger side had 30/60 - which apparently is NOT very good.  Now the wheels are balanced and the car is not shuddering as we drive.  We have also booked the car in for its service next week with our friendly mechanic - Paul.

I am now booked in to have my hearing aids fitted on the 1st May.  Because of all the public holidays over the next two weeks there is a BIG delay.  Will be good to have them in and not have to blast people out with the high volume on TV and radio, and not miss out on conversations.  We will then have to stay around Brisbane area for about a month - so that  they can be fine tuned.  So we are looking at what needs doing here at the house and on the van.

school Holidays 27.9.2013

We have just had all the grandchildren and their mother visiting for the week. And how quickly the time flew.
Most days we took the children to nearby Thompsons Beach for a few hours - a nice gentle beach with lots of sand and no crashing waves.  The children had a ball.
Wednesday we went and visited my cousin - Julie and her two daughters and spent a full day with them.  Again the time flew past and we found ourselves heading home after 8pm.  All the children fell asleep on the hour long journey.
Thursday - Darryl and Bradley headed off to the airport to collect Ben and Daniel as they had returned from their epic trip to the USA.  They called into home for about an hour before Darryl took them the rest of the journey to their unit in Eagleby.
Thursday afternoon Ben came and joined us for dinner and we had a great time learning about their adventures in USA and Canada.
Friday (today) Beckie and the three younger children headed home and Bradley is staying for an extra couple of days.
'Lucky Last' has come along in leaps and bounds.  Over the past week he has learnt to crawl on all-fours and he is pulling himself up and walking along the furniture with minimal assistance.  Even when he is holding on to your finger - he isn't really hanging on. Cheeky little fellow and the only one that can get him to REALLY giggle is 'Monkey Boy'.  Whenever they are together there are tons of giggles.
This coming week we were supposed to be camping with the Campertrailer group at BATLOW, But we are at home as I still have some medical tests to be done to sort out my issues.  We will be hanging around for a couple weeks and then may do a short trip and be back in time for my repeat scans in November.
We were to be in Mudgee in October with the ACC for the National Muster but will not be there for the same reason. So get the health issues sorted and next year we will plod our way around the country in the van.

Back in Queensland and Back near Brisbane :)

Hi all,
Well we were at Narrabri on our homeward journey and on Saturday we left Narrabri at 9.45am (NSW) for further north and when we reached Goondiwindi and had to turn our clocks back it became 12.30pm.  The next sign we saw said that it was 'only 3 1/2hrs to Brissy, kids' so we thought we would keep plodding on.... :-)
We got to Warwick and it was only 1 1/2 hours to Jimboomba - so we kept going.  We got to Jimboomba at 5pm and the kids were super excited - so was Beckie and Matt too when he got home.
It was so good to see them and we rang Ben and he and Daniel came over from their unit in Eagleby and spent a few hours with us too.
We have spent a lovely day today with Beckie and the children and Matt was out getting parts for the water filter to go under the sink.  He did manage to come and spend some quality time with us after lunch though.
Tomorrow the children will be at school and daycare and Matt will be at work, but we will stay at Jimboomba so that I can be here for Beckie's antenatal appointment on Tuesday morning.  We will then go back to our home in Victoria Point :-) and see Ronnie and Graeme.
Looking forward to getting everything out of the van for a thorough spring clean and so that Darryl can take out the items he wants to (his stuff only though) hehehehe.

Bradley's end of year Dance performance 26.11.11

Last evening Darryl and I had the pleasure of attending the end of year Dance performance by our grandson Bradley with Creation Dance.
He was great. (not biased at all)
It was a long night though.  Started at 6pm and finished just on 10pm and then by the time we got home was after 11pm.  Can just imagine what time it was for Beckie, Matt and the children to get home.

  Brad (back row far right) and his dance group

 before the performance photos

He looked like he was having a great time during his dances.

This morning we were up early to get to the airport to pick Ben up as he returned from Melbourne.

Christmas shopping done, wrapping completed - now to wait for the big day.

Max safely out of Surgery and home again.

Well we got to Jimboomba on Sunday and Beckie, Matt and Max left for the Hospital at about 5.30 on Monday morning.  Gemma and Brad came out and joined us in the van.  Brad was off to school by 7.30 and then we got miss Gemma ready for 9am and prep.  Max was due to go into surgery at 9.45am but went in at 9am.  All out of surgery and back on the ward by 10.45.  by last night he was eating sandwiches and drinking and coping well.
Beckie got home at about 8.30 last night and then had to leave again this morning at 6am so she could be at the Hospital by 7am.  Yep they were discharging the kids at 7am!!!!!
 As Beckie says - the only difference is the depth of his voice - it is now higher.  He has been on the go since they got home
Yesterday was  a shocker as far as temperature goes.  It got up to 35.2 in the shade.  Today has been much better only got to 30 degrees and there was a breeze - yay.
We got home at 6pm this afternoon and Ben was cooking dinner for us. YAY!!! Thank you son!
We are to get up at 5am so that we can leave at 6am and get Ben to the airport by 7am.  He is going to Melbourne for 4 days to visit friends and family.