March 2010 - Family Update

A family once asked me 'do you do birds in the prayer department'. We did! Now I ask you all, "Do you do dogs?"  Please say prayers that Bugs and Sheree find their dogs, along with Sheree's Mum's dog.  All disappeared from the McKay's yard just after they arrived in Dalby, from Mackay last Friday evening.  Bugs called here on Saturday morning and we were away, so we have not caught up with him yet. They enjoyed the wedding that they went to on the Sunshine Coast yesterday. We are looking forward to their coming out next week.

 

If anyone is chasing Mary. She said to let you know that she left her phone at home(Probably Julie's place) She and Julie have gone to Moreton Island where Julie (Jankowski) is taking part in a long swim today. They went to some naughty play yesterday - not sure of title, but it was banned in overseas countries! Not our Mary!

 

Last week, Les began work at Chris' IGA, a Super IGA store in Carina, not far from Carindale shopping centre. He said that it is a really good store run by a greek family, one son manages the grocery section and another the fresh produce.  He and Deb are currently shopping to buy a house and have been checking out the places that are open for inspection.  Kurtis has settled into school at Mansfield State High, but got off to a bad start when he got a really bad bug and missed  a couple of days. Hope he is well again soon. Blair spoke to me today - with a mouth full of popcorn! He is growing up.

 

Please roll out the prayers for the Auction of James and Melissa's house at 3 Vacy Street this Saturday at 12 midday - There was a great, almost full page, spread in the Real Estate Section of yesterday's Chronicle.   Dad and I have a wedding to attend in Dalby that afternoon, but hope to go to Toowoomba for the auction first. The agent was there for Open house when we drove past yesterday, so we stopped and spoke with him.  He seems to have been very good in keeping the place tidy, mowing lawns etc - all beyond the call of duty! I think that I sent you a copy of the NZ grandchildren in uniform.

 

So lovely to have Alli and Pete's boys and Peter here last weekend.  They are such a great lot of kids.  I highly recommend a read of their Blog http://allipete.blogspot.com/. It will fill you in on their farm visit and so much more.  Thanks for the great reading Alli and Pete.  Alli stayed home for a relaxing weekend??? of painting etc etc oh and she also organized a party and entertained her lady friends. Quiet weekend, Alli???

 

Sad news from Biloela late last week when Edwina rang to say that their neighbour, landlord and friend, Keith  Keegan, who lives up behind them had died.  Apparently he was out contract baling hay and the lady from the property where he was working, noticed that the tractor was stationary for some time.  When she went down, she found him dead, slumped over the steering wheel of the tractor.  He must have realized that he was  in trouble as he had turned the tractor off. Charlie and Mav were always saying, 'here comes Keithie" It must have been a big shock for his wife, Helen. Squirt is still at the Power House. Ed is teaching a grade 6 class this year and finding the going a bit tough, as most school teachers are these days. Charlie is a member of the local dancing school and loving every minute of it. Mav was given extra words for homework the other week, 'cos he was just too good!

 

Hopefully you all know that Natasha is wearing a ring on her finger these days.  Less than six months till she and Aaron 'tie the knot' at the family camp in September. Hope you are busy with plans you two.  Is there anything that we can do?  It seems that Jake has settled in well to being a 'preppie' and despite changes of teachers after the kids started school, Nyrie seems settled in once more. Lovely news to hear that Josh is doing a school based traineeship with the mines.  He and his mate were the two chosen by the company - a wonderful effort.

 

Pete Muller is suffering badly with back+ problems. Please keep him in your prayers and ask the good Lord to send along a buyer for the Five Star Supermarket in Cannonvale. Jarred is still not 100% with his toe - far from it actually. Just this minute had a call from Jo.  They eventually cleared the road down. There were trees everywhere. She said that there are huge trees all over Mt Julian - torn out by the roots. One from their place had fallen on the house of the man next door, so they also helped him clear it away. Pete is just getting ready to go in to the shop to check things out. Chris is really enjoying his computer traineeship.

 

Sorry for the long long review, but it is some time since I managed to do something like this! Dad and I are really enjoying life.  I have finished making and icing the wedding cake for Greg and Ashlee - at long last. Wet weather did not help. We brought a second hand mower yesterday - Dad has not yet been able to get it started but has lots of work lined up for it. We have been attending the Lenten program in our little local Church in Bowenville and it has been really great with between 7 to 9 people coming along each week. We have had lots of visitors and really enjoyed them.  Mary; Peter and Boys; Cathy and Tim Stitt; Margaret and Dennis Kelly; and Gordon Coward, were the most recent to stay with us.

 

All's Well Up North

Cyclone Ului has now passed by our families and thank God, all have survived with very little damage.

Jo said to say thanks a lot to all of you for the prayers. She, Peter and boys moved bedding into the laundry area and spent the night there. They said that the winds were absolutely unbelievable and they spoke of the incredible sudden calm as the eye of the cyclone passed over their area.  Trees have fallen over the road up to the house and the power line has also come down across the track, so they are in lock-down mode at home - lets hope they enjoy an enforced break. With power out in Airlie Beach/Cannonvale areas, their freezers and refrigerators will all be defrosted as it seems the powers that be are saying that it will be a few days before the power will be able to be reconnected. Chris talked with his mate from down the road at Mt Julian, last night, and they had just lost the roof of their house. Jo sent compliments to the builder of their home, (Uncle Steve Cook) as she said there was no movement at all and they just felt perfectly safe.

 

Bugs and Sheree left Mackay to come down for Sheree's brother, Greg's wedding to Ashlee Gooding.  They were most concerned because a month earlier they had decided to cancel their old insurance and transfer to Suncorp.  It had all been arranged to happen on the date the old policy expired. Anyway when they checked to confirm that they were covered for cyclone damage they were told that there was a 72 hour wait.  The rang the old company to extend their cover with them and were told it was too late as the policy had been cancelled (even though it was not supposed to expire till the next day). Hence they were leaving an uninsured house in the track of a cyclone.  Thank God all went well. A neighbour rang them this morning to say that all was well.  A portion of interior pool fencing had come down and there were a few other minor matters but in all everything is OK.

 

Finally as Ului wound its way to the west, it spread its cyclonic winds to Glenden. Tash said that they fared well.  Their sun-sail was blown down and the neighbours trampoline ended up thrown onto their fence, trees down all along the street, but no major damages.

Aaron wanted to go tie down his Bike trailer, but he wasn't allowed!

WildLife

Pete blogging for parents - who continue to be too busy to blog.  :)

I took the boys out to the farm for a visit as it has been quite a while.  Mum is suffering grandchild withdrawal symptoms since the Toowoomba Bryants (Jim) have moved to New Zealand and the Dalby Bryants (Les) have moved to Brisbane.

We got to the farm Friday night in time for dinner and soon had the boys packed into bed for the night.  We knew they would be up early as they always are at the farm, and Grandma promised the boys a walk.  The next morning the boys were off with Grandma at the crack of dawn and were back quite a while later with tales of flooded creeks and wild pigs.  Apparently they saw a mother pig and babies.  Lagoon creek is still running from rain which finished more than a week ago.  The whole countryside is soaked and it is lovely to see it that way for a change.  Luckily, Mum & Dad had the house dam dug out just before all the rain hit, so it is now nice and deep.

In the afternoon, we went down to the dam and saw a snake swimming along the creek where it followed the road.  We were able to walk along at a safe distance and observe the snake's excellent swimming action.
After the dam it was bath time, dinner time and then off to church.  Unfortunately I let the big boys pack their own shoes and it seemed that Alex packed only gumboots - now very wet and muddy.  As grandma had nothing to fit him, it was off to church with bare feet.  Not to worry I supposed not many people would notice once we were sitting down.  The boys picked our seat - right at the very front of the church.  Then a lady asked Mum if she would do the offertory procession with the boys.  So I reckon the whole church saw the poor little urchin Alex who had no shoes!
The boys behaved themselves reasonably well on the bribe of ice-cream at MacDonalds if they were good.
Harry was a bit silly, but what do you expect from a 2 year old ?   :)

Tractor Ride