Thirsty Cat

Mark spotted C.K. having a drink from the fish pond. I had to take a photo of him. He was totally ignoring the fish and was busy just having a drink.

WIP - Galaxy Note Cover

It's been slow going but that's because I haven't picked up my hook and I needed to purchase another ball of blue yarn. I swore I bought two balls to start with but I can't seem to find the second one. Not since Mark tidied up the lounge room. I have a feeling that I will find that yarn just after I have completed this project.

I'm Worried About My Dad

Today should seriously be called forgetful Friday! My mind has been elsewhere lately mainly because I have been thinking about my Dad a lot lately. Ever since I spoke with my sister, Julie, on Tuesday afternoon Dad has been on my mind a lot. Julie told me all sorts of things that have me very concerned about his well being.

Dad will be 85 next month and he's been living on his own since Mum passed away in twelve years ago. He volunteered at his local hospital for 10 years and then gave it away. Since he stopped volunteering around 12 months ago he's been steadily going down hill. It was the little things I noticed like his repeating conversations every time we've spoken on the phone. How he couldn't hear properly while on the phone. He would often say things that had absolutely nothing to do with what we had been talking about. 

When we were visiting him a few years back his driving scared the heck out of me by driving down the middle of the white line on a dual lane as we headed for a roundabout. I was relieved when he phoned me a couple of weeks ago to let me know that his license wont be getting renewed. He told me that the doctor said his eye sight wasn't up to scratch so he was no longer able to drive. What he didn't tell me was he had been pulled over by the police a week or two before that. He had absolutely no idea why he had been pulled over but he did remember that they were very nice young men. Scary right?!?!

Dad wants to remain independent and stay in his house. The trouble is he isn't able to look after it properly. Or himself for that matter. Apparently he lives on sweet biscuits (cookies) and cake. He no longer cooks himself meals. If he does cook anything he uses the microwave but that is very rare. He turns the power off on everything that he considers non-essential ie: toaster, kettle, stove, microwave [not really a bad thing in my book] He wont use the air-conditioner on stinking hot days. It gets too cold.

Dad no longer walks properly. He shuffles. He has trouble getting in and out of the car and needs to hold on to things while he does it. All he does is sit in his chair in the lounge room and sleep all day. His attention span is very short. Dad is unable to stay away to watch a whole tv show unless it's a short 30 minute one. His short term memory is pretty and his long term memory is a bit iffy at times. Julie asked Dad how old our Uncle Bob is. He said he was 37. Then Julie explained to him that his grand-daughter is 40. Oh was his reply.

Dad has it in his head that Julie and Vicki (my other sister) want to stick him into a nursing home. From what I have been told that isn't necessarily a bad idea. He of course will not had a bar of it. It would be admitting that he is old and needs help because he can no longer manage on his own. He's such a stubborn man. It's his generation really. You don't talk about certain things and you definitely do not admit that you need help! 

I have decided that I am going to go over to Adelaide and visit him next month. Julie said that I will be surprised to see what Dad is like now. He's certainly not the same person he was last time I visited but she said he's still Dad. 

Now the question is do I drove over (it's a 11-12 hour drive) or do I fly. The boys want to come and flying would be expensive. Although Julie did offer to help pay for the tickets. Mark will be staying home to look after our pets as we have no one else to do that. I really don't wish to drive on my own. I have done that before so it's not like I am unable to do that. I just don't want to go without Mark. I have a feeling I may need him. 

Finished Item & WIP - Tab Cover

When I knitted that TARDIS cover for Brodie I made it a little too wide for his Tablet. I thought I would just try it on my netbook just in case it fits that. Thankfully it fitted it nicely.

This knitted TARDIS fits my netbook quite nicely

 I started making a crocheted cover for Brodie. I'm not following a pattern but I am sure that I can get it to look like a TARDIS by the time I have finished.

This is what it looks like so far ...

It's a bit on the narrow side but that's okay I can always add a border. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

May your day be filled with lots of love and laughter.

My Geeky Sons Patience Was Wearing Thin

Brodie has been (impatiently) waiting for his Think Geek order for weeks now. It finally arrived this morning. Yay for the postie working on Saturdays during December! I'm not sure Brodie would've been able to wait much longer. 

It's blanket/throw rug of the TARDIS from Doctor Who. It's based on the episode where the Doctor and Amy go back in time to visit Vincent Van Gogh.

Still Spring Cleaning

I mentioned that Mark was on a cleaning spree recently. He's still tidying things up. The other day he and I got stuck into our food storage (which includes our 72 hour kit* - part of our emergency preparedness), our pantry and our camping gear. 

Sorting through our food storage also enables us to rotate the foods so that the fresher stuff can be placed in storage and the older stuff gets placed in the pantry to be used.

Part of our food storage

Mark is really good at packing things properly so that everything fits.

We must have Vegemite ~ yum! 

Our camping gear

We've food storage in all sorts of places

Some more camping gear

My craft stuff has now been banished to the bathroom cupboard ..
it was in  one of the cupboards where our food  storage now lives.

* 72 Hour Kit ~ basically it's all the items we will need in case of an emergency such as toiletries, food, matches, meds, first aid kit etc. 

On Golden Pond

Well it's not exactly a golden pond it's more like a red plastic pond but it's ours and I think it looks pretty good. Mark has been on a clean up kick at the moment. The facet joint injections have kicked in and he is getting some pain relief from them. 

Mark has tackled the backyard and got rid of the mountains of weeks and grass that had grown wild in what used to be our veggie patch. 

We have had the little fish pond for a while but the first lot of little fishies died a while back and we now have four new ones. 

Yesterday we went to a garden centre in town and bought some volcanic rock to go around the outside of the pond. The pond is technically a kids wading pool but I think it looks pretty good as a pond.

Mark had phoned another garden nursery in town to check if they sold plants that were suitable for ponds. In fact he phoned them three times. They hung up on his twice and the third time his call went to voice mail. We ended up going to the next town over from us and spent over $70 in plants and other items. Their loss!

Don't worry about the water being all mucky and dirty. That only happened when Mark had disturbed the gravel on the bottom of the pond while placing the plants in the water.

I took these last two photos just a few minutes ago to show what the pond looks like today now that all the sediment has settled down.

the fish hide under the wood underneath the little waterfall.

What do you think? It looks pretty good huh.

Thankful Thursday

Better late than never .. Here's what I am thankful for this week

• Being able to take Mark for his cortisone injections in his spine. I am crossing my fingers that this lot of injection work as effectively as they have done in the past.
• Being able to afford the injections. Each time we go back to get this procedure done the price increases just that little bit more.
• Visiting Mark's friend. While Mark spent time with his friend I got to talk with his Mum. She's in her 80's & is so lovely to talk with.

What are you thankful for this week?

In The Dog House ...

Mark set up his camping gear out in the front yard yesterday. The camouflage tent/cover was purchased at one of the local Op shops in town. Mark wanted to check that everything was okay and in good working order. 

I bought Mark a swag last week. It's that funny looking thing in the photo below under the tent thing. It closes up all nice and snug and secure. I think I would be a tad claustrophobic if I had to sleep in it. Mark had set the swag up in the backyard the other day soon after I had bought it. He had even slept in it that night. Yep I know strange huh, fancy not wanting to sleep indoors?!? Angus even slept in it the following night but got a little bit scared and came inside. I don't blame him although he would have been very safe in the back yard.

I told Mark that this was his dog house for when he get into trouble. He smiled. In fact he said it is more comfortable than a dog house. If you could see the mattress, the sleeping bag, pillow and blankets you would think it was very comfy too.

The Things We Do..

Brodie will do just about anything for a laugh. He let me tie a pretty ribbon in his hair and take a photo. I'm not sure if he realised I would put the photo on my blog.

I have warned the boys that anything that happens in our home may end up as a blog post..

Doesn't Brodz look cute? :D

Out For Dinner & A Limo Ride

My wonderful sister-in-law, Sally, along with my MIL organised and paid for a dinner and limo ride for Mark and I as a wedding gift. Last night we were picked up at 7 pm and taken to a fancy restaurant called In 2 Food. It's not the usual type of restaurant we would go to so that made our night extra special.

  

I had never been in a limo before so I didn't know what to expect. It was exciting not to have to drive ourselves. What was even better was the fact that some of our neighbours were outside having a sticky beak to see what on earth was going on! It was fun seeing their reactions. Especially the kids that were out playing in the street when the limo turned up.

The restaurant was fantastic. I'd never been there before either. The service as well as the food was impeccable. In fact Mark was so impressed that he wanted to book a table for next year on our anniversary. They weren't able to do that as yet. Something to do with the diary and being very busy for the rest of the month but they recommended we phone in January next year.

the upstairs dining area

Mark ordered Spring rolls with chilli sauce and a cucumber salad for his entree. There were three spring rolls and they were massive, as big as chicko rolls, about an inch round and three to four inches long.

I chose calamari which was lightly fried and came with a lovely salad. 

the stairs to go downstairs are through the doors

Mark's main dish was an eye fillet cooked medium rare with a red wine & mushroom sauce on a potato rosti topped with onion rings. It looked amazing and the steak melted in your mouth. YUM!

My main was a pan fried salmon on a bed of locally grown asparagus with a butter sauce. Talk about delicious. I think my taste-buds have been spoiled because I don't think I ever want to eat tinned salmon again.

I had a cup of tea at the end of the evening and the milk was brought out in a cow! Too cute!

We didn't have a desert although they did have a Mars Bar chocolate cake that looked amazing. I did the right thing, being the (mostly) well behaved diabetic that I am, and didn't order any sweets. We did however share a cheese and fruit platter. The cheese, which for the life of me I can't remember all of their names, was from local producers. Mark and I were unable to eat the whole platter so they let us take the leftovers home.

Mark & I are definitely going to spoil ourselves more often. Maybe not with a limousine ride but at least with dinner out in a more upmarket restaurant than we usually go to. If last night was anything to go by I can't wait to try this again!

Thankful Thursday

Here's what I am thankful for this week:

• being able to say goodbye to a friend today. The service for Maitland was beautiful and nicely done. It was a good send off with a lot of his friends being able to attend. It was standing room only in the Chapel. We will miss you Maity and your antics.
• our wedding and it going off without a hitch. The hot & humid weather disappeared and the rain stayed away until after the ceremony. I ♥  love ♥ you hon.
• Mark and his ability to work on the car. He was able to replace the brake booster easily & saved us a lot of money
• that Mark's ex who was at the funeral behaved. I was worried a teeny bit that she may live up to the nickname her family gave her, dragon. She ignored me and I ignored her. It was for the best. Although it was nice to see the kids.
• my knitting - making this cover for Brodie's Galaxy note as a TARDIS has been a little tough. I'm not used to the colour changes but I'm getting there. It's been a good challenge and I love those.

What are you thankful for this week? 

WIP - TARDIS Cover

Here's what I have made so far with the cover for Brodie's Galaxy Note. Now I remember why I don't knit in more than one colour, unless it's plain old stripes, the yarn gets very twisted and messy. All I know is the back will be stocking stitch, nothing fancy.

Any future TARDIS projects will be made via crochet!

Christmas Food Hampers

It love it when my Chrisco Hampers arrive! (they should pay me for this post). I have a general idea of what is in the boxes before I open them but I tend to forget a lot of the stuff. After all I ordered them over 12 months ago. 

I have already ordered next years hampers. I did that in the middle of October. 

Some people from Church think that its a bit of a silly idea to get the hampers when I can do a big grocery shop before Christmas and purchase exactly what I want. Personally I don't think we would ever be able to afford to stock up our pantry like this if I had to buy it all in one go. Plus who wants to go to a BIG shop and put up with lots of people in the supermarket doing the same thing? It would be a nightmare! 

I'm off to check what's in the boxes. Well some of them anyway. I will open the others when it gets closer to Christmas that way we wont be tempted to eat all the yummy goodness before then.

Feeling Festive

Now that Angus's birthday has been celebrated and our wedding has come & gone I can concentrate on all things festive. The boys and I put up our Christmas tree and other decorations yesterday.

Mr & Mrs Claus

The tree looks a bit lopsided to me

There are a few homemade decorations on that tree

A gift from one of the Sisters from Church. She made it herself.

We don't have a chimney so the curtain rod is where we hang our stockings.

I love how the decorations brighten up our lounge room.
Are your decorations up already?

More Wedding Photos

Here's the last of the photos that were taken yesterday. I did omit a few but that's because they looked a teeny bit grainy. These photos were taken by Mark's friend. He was also one of the witnesses. 

Mark really is a handsome fellow