Wednesday 31 October 2012

This is Halloween!!





James Bond,  a Redead (zombie) from the Legend of Zelda and young Link from the Legend of Zelda


Don't you just love Link's hat, I crocheted it for Toby!!

 


Sam made his own Redead mask, although we did get a few comments about him being Chewbacca!


Ethan really wanted to be James Bond so he could play with the cap gun.


I think I was very creative this Halloween, I even carved the pumpkin like Jack Skellington.  I was pretty impressed and very pleased with my work.



Happy Halloween!!


Monday 22 October 2012

He makes me laugh

This boy is so funny, I love him and his toothless smile and his cheeky short hair cut.   He still climbs up the doorways like Spiderman.  He has no front teeth, except for the new one just peeping through the gums.  Toby's favourite game at the moment is to get inside the folded up mattresses and walk around the house, it's almost like a sumo suit on him.  Then he will leave it on the floor in the lounge and take flying leaps on to it like it was a long jump pit.  Sam and Ethan would play with it too and use the rope that's holding the mattresses together and make a trip wire out of it as they played war games together.  I love these times when they work together at play and I do mean work together because they figure things out and actually have fun.  It's wonderful having three boys.


I was looking at photo's of Toby when he was little and he was so serious at times but mostly he was happy and a delight.  I just had to put these two of my favourite photo's up of Toby.  I love the light and calmness of this picture.  I want to smoosh my face up to his neck and smell his baby goodness and feel his little pudgy legs.


Toby has such attentive, bright and beautiful eyes that miss nothing and a very wiggly, jiggly body that didn't stop moving and to this day still doesn't stop.  I love his energy.   I just love looking through my boys baby photo's, don't be surprised if I put up more photo's in the weeks to come.



Friday 19 October 2012

Reposting in memory of my Dad

I have noticed something missing in my life.   Even though I have three boys of my own and am married, I still miss not having a father here on earth.  Someone my boys can have a relationship with, to learn from and have conversations with about favourite subjects like war, battles, cricket, football and even fishing.  It is sad that Sam and Ethan don't remember their Grandpa much as they were so young when he died and that Toby didn't have the opportunity to meet him here in this life.  I think my dad would have seen a lot of me in my boys and something different as well, seeing as he had two daughters and no sons.  It's been 8 years since my dad passed away and it would be his 75th birthday today so I am re-posting 19.10.10 a celebration of my dad.  God be with you until we meet again......

 
I love the old photo's of my parents and their families.  I love to see where I and my children have come from, it helps me to see where we are going.

In celebration and in memory:

Kenneth William Hammond
October 19 1937 - October 11 2004


26/8/1939
Ken 1 year and 10 months
Maryborough, Qld.


 4/11/1942
Ken 5 years
Mel 10 months
Bundaberg, Qld.


Approx 1945
Ken as a Scout
Toowong, Qld.


December 1947
Jess, Jim, Ken, Mel and Desley
Aunty Bon's wedding
Albert St, Brisbane


29/6/1950
Ken 13 years
Lone Pine, Brisbane, Qld.


1/4/1961
Jan and Ken's Engagement (the day after)
Brisbane, Qld.


1976 approximately 
Our new boat
Wynnum Manly, Qld.


Christmas day 1977
Ken, Gabby, Lisha (& Snoopy) and Jan
Kenmore, Qld.


20/9/2004
Ken, Desley and Mel
brothers and sister
Mt Cotton, Qld

Thursday 18 October 2012

The marvels of modern medicine

I woke up this morning with a bit of a migraine (and yes I still have them) but I think today was a bit of a stress migraine.  My anxieties were all a flutter today and the stress levels were rising because this morning Sam went for his MAG3 renal scan with Lasix, in other words he was having a nuclear kidney scan.  I'd researched what was going to happen so Sam and I were prepared.  Donald gave Sam a blessing this morning before we went which was a good start to the day.  We didn't have to wait long at PRP Imaging as we had a 9.30am appointment.  The radiographer got straight into it and didn't give us much time to think.  Sam was loaded onto the bed under the scanner and the radiopharmaceutical MAG 3 was injected into his bloodstream through his arm.  He then had to wait lying still for 20 minutes while the fluid is delivered to the kidneys via the bloodstream.  They needed to look at the blood supply, function and excretion of urine from the kidneys. The radiopharmaceutical shows up as shadows on the kidneys and bladder on the scans.  The test can find out what percentage each kidney contributes to the total kidney function and if the kidneys are emptying.


After the first 20 minutes Sam could get up and go to the bathroom and then had to hop back on the scanner for some more pictures for a minute.


Then the radiographer injected the Lasix, which is like a diuretic, to make your fluids flow quicker through the kidneys and Sam spent another 20 minutes on the scanner until he was allowed to relieve himself once again and have another picture to see how his kidneys were draining.  At least for the second 20 minutes we put the iPod on so he could listen to some music and relax.


After it was all done, Sam kept needing to go to the bathroom, I asked him if his pee would glow in the dark after the radioactive injections.  As a treat we went to lunch and spent some time in the toy shop.  It's fun spending time with one child at a time, even if it is for medical reasons.

Sam's hot chocolate moustache

After I picked Ethan and Tobes up from school we drove back to PRP Imaging to pick up the scans and report then headed off to the GP to find out the results.  As the scans and ultrasound showed, Sam's right kidney works beautifully but his left kidney does not.  He has an obstruction in the PUJ, the Pelvi-Ureteric Junction.  It's the part of the kidney where the urine flows from the renal pelvis to the ureter and then to the bladder.  It is blocked and will need unblocking which most likely means surgery.  As to what will happen we have to wait until we see the Urologist next week.

Before that happens, Donald is off to have some surgery on Tuesday to remove a screw from his broken leg then he will be able to put pressure on his foot at last and start walking again.  Fingers crossed all goes well and soon no more crutches.  Another story to be continued . . . 




All I can say is aren't we lucky to live in a world with modern medicine!!


End note:  The boys and I were very disappointed when we went to the doctor this afternoon and found that the mulberry tree had been cut right back to 1 meter high, even when it was dripping with ripe mulberries.  The gardener must have been either mad or selfish, maybe they took all the mulberries for themselves.



Monday 15 October 2012

A photo a day: Week 41

Last week was a particularly interesting week for us.  It began with us saying goodbye to our old fridge, two visits to the hospital and catching chickens.  I've thrown in a few extra photo's so it should really be "a few photo's a day" this week.


October 8

Our fridge, which we inherited from my Grandma about 11 years ago, has been slowly dying an icy death.  The fridge was made in the early 1970's, so it is nearly as old as me.  It has been passed down from my Grandma and Pa and moved from Indooroopilly to Hervey Bay and then moved and passed on to my mum at Redland Bay and then on to us here in Sydney.  It is a well travelled fridge.  At long last I have managed to convince Donald that it was time to get a new one (with the help of his brother Alister backing me up).  This fridge is rusty, the seals are broken and moldy, the fridge elements iced up and so did the freezer.  It was a nightmare to defrost, which is why I hardly ever defrosted it and finding things in the freezer you were lucky to escape frostbitten fingers for digging through the ice.  Alas it has now gone to be recycled.  Thank you old fridge for the long service you gave.




Behold our new fridge!!  I am so excited, I have never owned a new fridge before and this one is so spacious.  It's wonderful having a freezer that I can find things in now and that it is soooo clean.  I bought it through appliances on line.  They took my old fridge away and installed the new one, all I had to do was defrost the old fridge for the last time and order the new one online.

October 9

Of course to sweeten the deal for Donald I bought a selection of ice creams to fill up the freezer with.  I think he's slowly warming to the idea of a new fridge.  Although he did say that it was too easy to scoop the ice cream now as the new freezer keeps it at just the right temperature and you can scoop out lots at a time which is dangerous, with the old fridge the ice cream was so hard you could only scoop out a little bit at a time so you didn't eat as much. 

October 10


Sam came home from school last Wednesday with an aching back, he'd felt nauseous and clammy at school that afternoon.  He told me that he's had this pain off and on for the past ten days, since he fell while he was on the Young Men's camp in the holidays.  So we went to the doctors, who thought he may have a virus, but ordered an abdominal x-ray just to be sure.

October 11

Thursday morning Sam had his x-ray and while he was on the x-ray bed they decided to take a few more and then they ordered an ultrasound.  I knew something was up, but was waiting until they were ready to tell me.  It was during the ultrasound that the radiologist left the room to say she was just going to "check the pictures".  So here Sam and I were left for at least 10 minutes until the radiologist came back with a Doctor this time, who started to ultrasound Sam's abdomen again.  So I ventured to ask what they were looking for.  What they showed me was that Sam's left kidney was dilated and his right kidney was of a normal size.  They said that his kidney may not be draining properly and retaining some of the fluid.  It's what they call a Hydronephrosis with a duplex collecting system.  So Sam is off on Thursday for further tests, a MAG3 nuclear scan to be exact, and then off to the Pediatric Urologist to determine the course of action.  So far Sam just has sharp pain in his left kidney every couple of days, but otherwise he is fine and at least we can monitor him now.  Fingers crossed it's not too serious a problem.


Here are some mulberries we picked from the tree outside of the doctors office.  They were so good, at least we picked them after we came out of the doctors as we all had mulberry stains on our hands and teeth.  I wish we had a mulberry tree, I remember my mum used to make mulberry and apple strudels, so delicious!

October 11


October 12

I have been told by my husband that I snore rather loudly.  He seems to think that I keep him awake at nights. . . . and here I thought it was the other way around!  I would wake through the night hearing this loud sound in my ears and then realise it was me!  I had sinus surgery last year and it has helped immensely with breathing and I have not touched an antibiotic since the operation in August last year.  I figure this to be a major success, however on the flip side I seem to be snoring worse since then.  So I went for a sleep study at Royal North Shore hospital on Thursday night.  They hooked me up with all sorts of wires, papier-mâchéd the wires into my hair, stuck them to my chin, temples, forehead, chest, stomache and legs and plugged me into a little box that I could carry around until I was ready to settle down to sleep.  Then they plugged the box of wires into their computer system, strapped some more oxygen tubes to my nose and clipped a heart monitor onto my finger.  Then I was supposed to slip into a deep relaxing sleep with all of these wires attached and a camera filming my sleep movements.  I'm afraid it wasn't the best nights sleep, especially as the person in the next room was snoring all-night-long!!  I have to wait until November for the results with my Respiratory specialist.  It should be interesting!!



Amelia the chook chaser.

October 13

My Miss Amelia has a taste for chickens, not only does she like eating a bit of chicken, but she loves to chase chooks as well.  If she can, she will escape out the front door if it is left open and run next door to the cat Trouble or to our other neighbours who have chooks.  Today it was the chooks.  Apparently she chased them through the back fence into another neighbours yard and scattered 7 of them in all different places.  Amelia returned home on her own with a very sheepish look, cowering and wagging her tail.  She had done wrong!!  I found 3 out of the 7 chickens and waited until later in the afternoon to see if the others would return.  Fortunately they did and they all looked none the worse for wear.


October 14

Sunday morning we watched General Conference (for our church) in the comfort of our lounge.  I really enjoy sitting with the family listening to our church leaders speak.  While Ethan and Toby had fantastic conference packs they received from Primary, an activity booklet, pens, pencils and a snack, I crocheted (still working on my blanket only a few more rows then a border to go), Donald sat and sketched and Sam snuggled under the blankets.  I really love listening to President Monson his inspirational words and sense of humour.


These are the most delicious double baked potatoes we had for dinner last night accompanied with BBQ sausages and salad.  One day I will get organised and share the recipe.



Find me on Instagram as earthwalkerlisha






Tuesday 9 October 2012

A photo a day: Week 40


September 30

The last night of September.  I was a little sad to see how quickly September flew by.  Amelia and I sat outside to enjoy the fresh, Spring air and watch the moon rise.  It's very calming outside at night.

October 1

Spotto!!  Everywhere we go we've been seeing yellow cars, the boys have got Donald and I saying "Spotto" when ever we see a yellow vehicle.
 
October 2

Ethan is the coolest kid on the street with his new BMX bike, it's a very speedy one and he's been out everyday in the holidays cruising the streets since he got it.

October 3

Returning to the scene of the crime.  Donald revisited the very spot where he played his Grand Final soccer game and reenacted breaking his leg.  So far Donald is healing well, still on crutches, his plaster came off at 6 weeks but he's still not allowed to put any pressure on his leg until the large screw is taken out in 2 weeks time.  He has to go back for a second round of surgery, they are leaving a plate and 6 screws in but need to remove the large screw which is keeping his Tibia and Fibula in place.

October 4

Donald's brother Alister came and stayed with us in the holidays, Sam is catching up to him in height.  Maybe by Christmas Sam will have shot past Alister.

October 5

The boys love having their Uncle Alister come and stay, he does lots of fun stuff with them, nerf battles, bike riding, playing Lord of the Rings Risk, but I think their favourite is wrestling, not so sure Alister agrees about the wrestling though!

October 6

My little Toby had his first official hair cut by someone other than his mother.  Can you believe it he is 7 years old and I took him to the barbers for the first time ever!!  He is such a cutie and I love being able to see his little ears.  I love this photo, Tobes and Amelia were snuggling on the couch and Amelia has her eyes on the biscuit in Toby's hand.