A QUICK UPDATE

Royce and I have been very busy and I have no idea how we ever managed to find time to go to work!  A new baby in the house certainly manages to create chaos, and all the things that we didn't get done before are now coming back to haunt us so we have had to pull our fingers out and try to catch up on a lot of outstanding jobs.  We almost have our heads above water now and are looking forward to experiencing some of that laid back, relaxing retirement lifestyle we keep hearing so much about! 
Our first Christmas with Marshall was lovely.  Rory, Emma, Marshall, Royce, Kane and I exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve as we anticipated Christmas morning may be a bit hectic.  Kane had an absolute ball opening his own presents and then ripping all the other wrapping paper to pieces as well.  Marshall had no idea what all the fuss was about, and the rest of us enjoyed the moment.
Christmas Day was a bit of rushing around.  Royce travelled the State to pick up his godfather and his mum and bring them to our place.  Rory and Emma looked after Marshall and I tried to get all the food ready.  I had set the table the previous day and done as much as possible ahead of time but even so everyone was here and ready for lunch and I was running a bit behind time.  Didn't really matter that much - we all had a lovely lunch and exchanged gifts, chatted and then Royce did the reverse run taking his mum and godfather home while I cleaned up.   We headed out to my brother's for Christmas tea with my family.  It was a nice night but I am wondering if we shouldn't think about changing the "Foster" get together to a picnic on Boxing Day.  May have to canvas the others and see what people think.
Royce and I babysat on New Years Eve (the dog and the baby) while Rory and Emma got to let their hair down for the night. 
Marshall has been a bit unwell recently - some sort of tummy bug and was borderline running a temperature so he was pretty unsettled for a while but he seems to have come good and is now feeding like a real greedy guts!  He is growing pretty quickly and now has chubby cheeks and a slight double chin.  We discovered dimples in his knees recently.   He has started focussing on people now and makes really good eye contact.
Emma's two sisters from Sydney were here for a few days and they loved being able to catch up.  Marshall's aunties spoiled him rotten - buying him some really terrific clothes, rugs, bibs etc. 
Only a short posting but it is getting late and this will have to do for the time being.
I have included some photos and I apologise to my Facebook friends because some of them you will have seen on Facebook, but I needed to include them here for those people who aren't on Facebook

Kane in the aftermath of his 'opening presents' Christmas Eve

Emma, Great Grandma (Royce's Mum), Marshall Christmas Day 2010

Rory, Marshall, Uncle David (Royce's godfather), Royce - Christmas Day 2010

Marshall and Emma - Christmas Day 2010

Marshall enjoying a bath in the kitchen sink - 22/12/10

Royce with Marshall 23/12/10

Marshall 24/12/10

Sleeping like a baby = 30/12/10

In one of his new outfits from his aunties - 7/1/11

Cheeky (cat) and Kane relaxing togther

MARY POPPINS?

We were very lucky to be paid a visit by Mary Poppins today! 
The story starts where the last blog left off and we were all very excited to have Marshall come home on Tuesday 14/12/10.  Not surprisingly Marshall was pretty unsettled Tuesday night and Wednesday and by Wednesday evening Rory and Emma were pretty exhausted so Nanny and Poppy came to the rescue.  Rory and Emma had an early evening snooze and we gave Marshall his 9pm bottle.  We tried sitting him up a bit more for that bottle and he scoffed it and promptly fell asleep in my arms.  This was the first decent sleep he had indulged in since coming home, and since Rory and Emma were also snoozing I decided not to disturb anyone and just nursed him until he started stirring about about 12.15am.  Royce put some wooden blocks under the head of the cradle to give it a bit of a slope and we kept our fingers crossed. 
Rory and Emma fed Marshall at about 12.30am (again more in a sitting than lying position), following which Marshall promptly fell asleep.  He was put in the cradle and slept until 5.30am.  Rory and Emma felt so much better and were a lot less stressed on Thursday.   The nurse called in on Thursday and was very happy with Marshall's progress - he has put on 70grams.
Marshall did pretty well last night until about 3.15am this morning when he woke Emma and Rory and gave them the gift of a very big poo-ey nappy!  By the time they changed him, cleaned him up, fed him and settled him down again they were pretty tired and by the time they got back to sleep it was only a very short time until Marshall's next feed.
This brings me to Mary Poppins. 
The HomeCare nurse arrived today to assist.  She got here at 9.30am, took a lunch break for an hour and stayed until 3pm.  During that time she tended to Marshall, cleaned his room, sorted all his clothes, did a load of washing, cleaned the kids lounge-room, peeled potatoes for tea and pretty much kept herself busy doing whatever needed doing while the kids slept and went to the doctors.  Rory and Emma decided she must be Mary Poppins and want to know if they can keep her!
Marshall is a bit unsettled again tonight so not sure how much rest the kids will have, but perhaps he will tire himself out and sleep really well when it counts!
Poor Royce is pretty unwell today with a nasty throat infection.  Took him to the doctors today and he has antibiotics and a throat gargle so I am hopiing for a quick improvement.
Stay tuned and as when time permits I will keep you updated.   I hope to get a few photos done before too much longer and will post them as soon as I can.
I had lunch with my former workmates at Transport Planning on Thursday and it was terrific to catch up with them.  I didn't get the chance to speak with all of them but I hope if any of them are reading this they will pass on to the others my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

OUR BEAUTIFUL GRANDSON

I have attempted to let everyone know - where possible - about the birth of our beautiful grandson Marshall Peter Lind-Kuhn on 9/12/10.  I did send out text messages, emails and posted information on Facebook but decided I should put something on my Blog in case I have missed someone.
Marshall was born at 2.32pm on 9/12/10 weight 5lb12oz and measuring 47cm.  The birth went well and apart from Marshall's temperature being low everything was good.  Emma did a great job and Rory supported her well.  They are both recovering and getting used to being parents!!!!
Marshall had to go to the special care nursery to get his body temperature up and to monitor him to ensure he puts on weight and didn't have problems with jaundice.  Emma was discharged from hospital on Saturday and she and Rory have been doing the trek to and from the hospital several times each day to feed and look after Marshall.   They were told they can bring him home tomorrow so they are very excited and a little bit nervous.  I am sure they will be fine - they are already doing a terrific job and we are very proud of them.

ONE DOOR CLOSES!

It feels very strange - I will officially cease my employment with the Department for Transport tomorrow (26/11/10).  I started with DTEI as a contractor in November 1997 and it has been a very interesting 13 years.  There were frustrations and disappointments but over-riding all of that was a great sense of pride in my achievements over the years.  I was privileged to manage a terrific team for several years and was honoured to have worked with some wonderful people over the last 13 years - both within and outside DTEI.  I am not apprehensive about finishing my employment but I am sad that my contact with some truly fabulous people is likely to diminish and gradually fade to nothing.  I hope I am wrong but it is often what happens. A very big thank you to all the people who have supported and encouraged me throughout the last 13 years.  My learnings over that period have been great and I hope I have, in some way, passed those learnings on to others.
As this door closes I look forward to seeing what is behind the other door (or doors) which are opening.  My first grandchild is due in two weeks and Royce and I are still planning a big (3-6 month) journey early next year (provided all the planets align appropriately).
In the meantime I hope everyone is safe and well and remains so throughout the festive season.

Tumby Bay

I haven't been able to post anything since my last post because my 'retired' brain recharged someone else's mobile phone rather than recharging my mobile broadband!  I finally got a recharge done via phone this morning, hence I can now do a blog post!
We called into DTEI last Monday and it was fantastic to catch up with some of my (nearly former) workmates.  We then did a bit of shopping for presents we needed to buy and then ordered our new lounge suite which was delivered on Tuesday.  We did get to sit on it for a couple of hours Tuesday night!  It is a 3.5 seater and 2.5 seater white/cream leather and it is just lovely.  I am a bit apprehensive about the cat but I will just have to keep her claws trimmed and keep my fingers crossed!   If anyone knows a good way to stop a cat clawing leather I would love to hear it.
Our plan was to have everything packed up so all we had to do Wednesday morning was hook up the caravan and head off.  Needless to say the plan didn't quite work properly and it was 10.55am before we actually hit the road. 
We had a pretty good trip but did stop to help some people pick debris off the highway about 20km before Port Pirie.  These people are visitors to Australia from Denmark and they were driving a white van travelling behind a truck carrying a small transportable building.  It appears the water heater which was secured to the front of the transportable, came off and bounced around on the road.  The tank also hit the car but fortunately on the side, not the front.  If it had hit the front I suspect there would have been serious injuries, if not deaths!  As it was no-one was hurt but they were pretty shaken up.  We helped clear all the bits and pieces off the road and checked the people had gathered all the information they needed from the truck driver.  They had everything except his insurance information and when they asked him for that he said he didn't have any and took off pretty quickly!  We recommended they report the incident to the police in Port Pirie and then phone Avis after that.
I had a go at driving the car while towing the caravan but only managed about 15 minutes before my right arm started hurting.  I have had a very painful bout of tennis elbow in that arm recently and it was only just starting to settle.  I suspect I was nervous and probably gripping the steering wheel too hard which caused the soreness.
We camped Wednesday night at the Half Way Camp Site (about 40km south of Port Augusta between PA and Whyalla).  The minute we stepped out of the car we were swarmed by flies, so sitting outside wasn't an option!  The camp site was pretty close to the road and it is surprising how many trucks use the road between Whyalla and Port Augusta through the night!  We also had a truck pull in during the early hours of the morning and leave his engine idling while he had a nap or breakfast or something!  Luckily we only intended to camp for one night.
Our friends caught up with us at the camp site and we all travelled in convoy to Tumby Bay, arriving at the caravan park late morning.  We set up our caravans and spent most of the afternoon sitting around chatting.
The rain started last night and shows no sign of letting up.  The forecast indicates rain today and tomorrow but after that it should be reasonbly good weather.  I had intended to go for a walk this morning but discovered I left my lightweight rain jacket home.  I will probably spend most of the day knitting, reading or whatever.  The weather doesn't lend itself to anything else at the moment, but spending a leisurely few hours reading or knitting or whatever sounds good anyway.
Royce has just decided to go out and clean the caravan windows - while it is raining!  He has his hat on and has the squeegee and I hadn't realised how dirty the front window was until he has started cleaning it.
No photos yet so no visuals I can give you!

Kane's Birthday

Today was my grand-dog's birthday.  We have a bit of a dispute about his age.  I think he is 8 and Rory thinks he is 7.  Kane didn't really care - he just had a lot of fun unwrapping his presents!  He got a rawhide chicken and roo chew which he loved and devoured as quickly as he could; a squeaky monkey which he destroyed as quickly as he could; a new ball which he chased around as soon as he could.  He was very excited when Rory and Emma brought out the wrapped presents.  He knew they were for him and he couldn't wait to start unwrapping them.  A pleasant morning.

With Rory before being given his presents. Very few things he likes better than cuddling with his Dad!

Starting to destroy his Monkey

Rory and Emma encouraging Kane to 'look at Nanny'!

The Art of Racing in the Rain

I have just recently finished reading the book The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein and it was a really good book.  It is a story about Denny (a racing car driver), his wife Eve, daughter Zoe - all told by Denny's dog Enzo.  It is funny and sad and well worth reading.
I put on a baby shower for Emma on Sunday and a big thank you to those who attended.  We had a bit of fun, ate some food, drank some drinks and Emma had a wonderful afternoon.  The gifts she received are terrific and are appreciated.
It was great to catch up with some work-mates in Adelaide last week for a coffee.  I will have to try to arrange another catch up soon.
Moving all the furniture and boxes around over the past few weeks has stirred up my tennis elbow and it is now extremely painful.  I can't even pick up my coffee cup with my right hand!  I have an appointment with my chiro on Thursday and I am keeping my fingers crossed that he can help.  Last time I had this problem he was able to clear it up so I am hoping we can do the same again.
Our Plasma TV died on Sunday and we have decided it may not be worth spending the money to fix it.  It is 5 years old and gave up the ghost one month after the warranty expired!  I am told that modern TVs have a 5 year life span and anything over that is a bonus. 
Keep safe and well everyone and I will do another post again in the near future - probably from Tumby Bay next week sometime.