An Inconvenient Truth

Hi All

Bob and I just saw the Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and it was absolutely mind blowing. Please, if you all can, go and hire the DVD and watch it. It is not for one minute boring, it is real life, actual happenings. It shows how quickly and how in such a short space of time we are destroying the planet. If your like me and always thought "it's along way off being a big problem" then once you see this you will KNOW that we have got to get our bums in to gear and start doing our part to stop Global Warming. It is predicted that the entire North Pole will have melted within 50 years, that pretty much kisses The Netherlands goodbye and all but floods hundreds of major cities around the world including Australia. Spread the word all, we all have kids, or care about our future enough to want to do this.

Sorry to sound preachy, but watch the film and you will understand. On the right hand side of the screen is a Pledge counter. I challenge you all to Pledge and get our counter up.

Cheers.

Ki

This is that picture of Kiandra. Poor Ang couldn't figure it out so good ol' Dan came to the rescue :)

Hi everybody. This is my first time to contribute on my own so please be patient with me. This picture is of Kiandra sitting in her bumbo chair. She has had a really big week this week. (Anyone without children stop reading here - you will be bored!) While recovering from her first tummy bug we discovered the arrival of her first tooth! She is a little grumpy but no trouble as always. She can sit on her own for a minute before falling flat on her face & now holds her hands out to go to her favourite person rather then a stranger. She chews on her feet rather then her hands and drools like that dog in Turner & Hootch. Speaking of dogs Beau is her best friend. She thinks he is great & so do I as he does not require 8 batteries like most of her XMAS presents, he just keeps going & going........................
Justin is away on another work trip that they informed him about at 10:30 pm last night & he left at 3:30am this morning. He is pissed off, which is funny cause it takes a bit to get under his skin. He is hoping to be home for Australia Day as we always like to have a BBQ but if not he will be home by Saturday. Either way Mum is cooking a lamb roast Friday night so I will be there with or without him. With any luck Glenn & Lisa will be visiting. Ki has a bit of a thing for Glenn, she always smiles at him and stuff & I think it is cause he does not carry one like the rest of us in that baby talk way. It is as if his attention a good challenge for her.
We are off for our usual holiday in Tathra on the 19th of February. It is good to have the caravan as we do not travel light & everything fits in.
Life is really great at the moment & I am very lucky to have all the things I do but I have to say it - I am going insane as a stay at home mum. ( mainly as Ki is asleep more then an average baby)I have even asked Justin to start being a bit more demanding (eg; 3 course meal every night) but he says I should just take it easy. If things were much slower around here I would be asleep. I am keen to go back to work, but can afford to be picky & not work myself into the ground again. It may take months to find the right job. So Dan when you are wondering why I am not contributing to the blog it is cause all I have to talk about is babies & food. Take care everyone.......

Belated Christmas & New Years Wishes

Hi all,

Sorry it has been a while but what can I say the last few weeks/months have been hectic - none more so than over christmas & New Years. Just to quickly fill you all in I have been busy studying to get my final exam out of the way so that I can graduate this year - so far no luck but I will keep pottering along with it - just one measly pass is all I need. Glenn has been busy applying for jobs which is great. His health is going great. The drama since christmas has been that my pops health went down hill rapidly and the Drs were talking only 2 weeks to live. My family were very distraught as pop has been a major part of our lives. He struggled his way through christmas, getting sent home on christmas eve day to basically die as there was nothing they could do for him in hospital - we were angry and hurt at the callousness of it - he couldn't look after himself but they were sending him home!?!. Mum come to visit pop just before he got really ill and was staying with him when he had to go to hospital - her 2 week stayed turned into about 12 weeks. We finally relocated pop back to mum and dads in Albury last weekend after he was released from Junee hospital. The Dr's are now talking that he may have 5 months or more to live (he has fluid retention which is collapsing his lungs and pressuring his heart - and the fluid tablets to relieve it are killing his kidneys so it is no win all round). I am much more at peace with what is happening now which is good. Mum is a great help too as she is doing such a great job looking after him. He will probably be moved into nursing care soon. So that was all a very big emotional upheaval.

Over the break my whole family was home so it was good to see them. Caught up with Ellie which was great. Glenn and I went to Eden with Ang & Justin and some Tumut-ites for New Years eve. It rained the whole time but was lovely anyway. I must be getting old cos I fell asleep at 11.30 - totally missing ringing in the new year! My friend Scott came home from Japan and we hung out heaps over the new years break. Then the day he was meant to fly home his brother in-law committed suicide so he postponed leaving for an extra 2 weeks while he and his family dealt with it. I attended the funeral and the wake. It felt odd cos I didn't know the deceased but I was there for Scott which he really appreciated. It just seems that all my friends lives are crap at the moment - I mean they are strong but are all dealing with death or disease. I hope that you guys are all OK. Sorry to bring the mood down a bit - but that's where I've been at lately. Things are looking up though and hopefully I'll have some more cheerful blogs to post soon - perhaps relating to a house warming party for the summerell clan....2 beers anyone? Here's a pic of me not being doom & gloomy at our xmas party, it was in the members stand at the MTC, it was at night so there was no actual racing going on.

More pictures

Here are a few pics, thought it had been a while so the first one is Lachlan, Mackenzie and I, then there is Bob and Lachie making Milo balls and then a good one of Mackenzie.

Hope everyone is well.

Need some ideas guys!

Just wanted to rack your brains for an idea....
We are thinking about doing a sponsorship thing to raise funds to go to South America - we found out we are heading to Argentina when we do all that volunteer work for four months. Anyway, we thought to have a sponsorship form where people can donate instead of just asking for money would be a good idea.
Thought it would be good to work the van in somehow (a big white van is a bit of an icon here), a lot of people know us from that and it could be quite funny. We want something interesting, not just a climb or walk or something, so what do you reckon we could do with the van?
At the moment all I can think of is how many people can we pack into the van to sleep? Like sleep one night with 5 people in it or something...
Suggestions????
Thanks guys! JodesX