I spoke to my mum an hr or so ago. They are without power at the moment,& have prepared themselves as best as they can( taping/ boarding windows,painting phone numbers on stock etc) They are both quite terrified,& will be back in touch with us as soon as they can. Only areas which will be affected by the storm surge have been evacuated. The storm has been upgraded to cat 5 now- so thoughts & prayers ate with everyone in Far North Queensland.

I delivered baby # 4 this month(. 14/01/2011). Griffin Lennox is our newest family member. I had another great labour & delivery & he was born weighing 7lb13oz,& was 52cm long. I'm not near my computer at present, but will post a pic shortly.( he is such a cutie!!)

Just off the phone to my mum( lives in far north QLD), & many are evacuating from town.She & her partner are staying at this point as they are still trying to secure all of their stock( they are on a large property). Our country has taken such a battering these past few months- our town is still mopping up after our 2nd once-in-a-100-year flood- in 4 months!

Same colour! I painted them this week as I can FINALLY see my toes again,as baby # 4 arrived 2 weeks ago.One if the 1st things I did when I came home from hospital was to paint my toenails....because I could reach them again. It's also summer here,so feet always out for the world to see. Perhaps a nice red next time.

I'm also hiding in my room- trying to recover from a nasty case of sunburn I received whilst mowing lawns yesterday ...ouch! DS13- is washing the lunch dishes ( not by choice) DD11- is making a birthday card for my brother DD4- is playing outside in the cubby house baby-in-utero- is all happy now that I have finished eating :)

My avatar is of my favourite holiday destination. A few years ago, my sister, our best friend and myself spent a few blissful weeks without our husbands and kids relaxing on a gorgeous tropical island in the Maldives. Heaven!

Congratulations! Lola is beautiful! Enjoy your 'babymoon' together.

Wow Amber...we were due around the same time! Congrats to you, Mr Amber and your other children. I hope your little fella and you are both doing well. xx

Between 40-45. Though on saying that, I'm pregnant with #4 and baby will be born just shy of my 39th birthday...and I'm struggling. This pregnancy has been harder in the sense that I feel so darn exhausted all the time.

* raising hand* I am also pregnant. About 23 weeks along with surprise #4. Let me just say, that next time DH wants to have a private party to celebrate our move back to Oz, I don't think I will RSVP...:lol: Due in January.

When we were living abroad,Dh's hours were varied; sometimes working for weeks or months away,other times working not too far from us. Currently, he is working about 20-30 hrs a week,and most of that is at night,after dinner. He works from home and tries to keep the days free so we can hangout together( dr appointments,school runs,trips to park,shopping etc) and then works once dinner is over and kids are heading off to bed.

We only have 1 DS and we chose NOT to have him circumcised. We just felt that that was the way he was born, so why change it? ( even though DH is done he didn't want DS done either). If the next baby is a boy, he too won't be circumcised.

Ds (almost 13) Dd ( almost 12), are working through SOTW 2. Up until now, I just purchased whatever books I saw related to a chapter, as we didn't have access to a good library. We are now back in Oz, and close to a decent library, and one where we can do inter-library transfers with.*swoon* The suggested books for chapter 12 (Islamic Invasion) are all to young for them. Does anyone have some suggested books we could/ should borrow? Is there a reading guide for older children available? Thanks so much.

I *love* Midsummer Murders The Bill Top Gear

Hi Sandra, We have just returned to Victoria and the 2 oldest have started school after homeschooling for 5 years. They both won scholarships to a top school in Vic,but we decided on a smaller school which the kids needed to sit an interview for. The questions varied greatly: * What are your favourite subjects?* Weakest areas, strongest areas*, Hobbies* General knowledge questions...mainly about current affairs,* Thoughts of where they saw themselves in next few years- occupation wise/study wise/ personal level etc If we had have returned to Berwick, I would have certainly had them apply to the 9-12 school at Monash. Good luck, I'm sure he we do well.

Mine update is up- but not homeschool related. It is my farewell post- well, for the next 6-8 weeks, as tonight my computer will be packed up, and on Monday, we begin the journey back to Australia...ready for a new adventure. http://web.mac.com/sgilli3/Wadi_Whispers/Wadi_Whispers/Wadi_Whispers.html

Hope you had a wonderful birthday Peela! :party:

We have packers coming this Sunday and Monday. I know there is a small army coming, and am now thinking they will be done on Sunday. I will just make them come back on Monday to collect the bedding etc we need for Sun night...lol

Congrats to your DH Amber! That is exciting news. Make sure you keep us updated about his trip to QLD ( lucky man!)

Sorry to hear about your heartburn! I have just discovered I'm pregnant with #4, and as much as I know each baby is a blessing- I'm not a fan of pregnancy at all. *sigh* Also, I'm up as it is 12pm here- time to start thinking about what to make for lunch..not easy when we are making another international move in a week and we are trying to use up everything in the pantry!

Right back at 'ya!:D

Thanks all. Did another test this morning, and apparently the first test was right.:ohmy: Think we will be in Maryborough for next 12 months Rosie, but with us-who knows! We have applied for 2 rentals, 1 in Clunes 1 in Maryborough. We really wanted the Maryborough one, then decided that Clunes would be the better one( closer to the block to start working on clearing it for house etc). Now- it may be back to Maryborough one ( bigger and closer to a hospital...labour/delivery with #3 was 1hr 15 mins.) So now the flight home should be OK...I guess:lol:

That's not the humour I was after.:lol: I'm not after the truth- I'm going to stay in my little fantasy land called denial for as long as possible ( delivery may be an issue...lol)

A little background. My period is a little irregular;usually somewhere between 30-36 days apart ( sometimes less,sometimes more) We are flying back to Oz in 10 days, and I was starting to panic as period hasn't arrived yet (day 37), and I was worried that I would have it when flying (at least 1 day in my cycle leaves me housebound) I was thinking it may be late as I have a lot on my mind at the moment, and perhaps the stress was taking its toll on my cycle. I thought by doing a test, it would be negative, and I would relax, I'd wake up in the morning, my period would be there to greet me and all would be OK. ( this is where the humour me bit comes into it) This may be TMI; Last night (10pm)whilst peeing on the stick, it turned positive immediately- I hadn't even had time to put the cap on the test and sit it on a counter and wait the 2 minutes. There was a big,shiny positive cross looking straight at me!:001_huh: The test came with 2 testers. Do you think that *just maybe* the 1st one was faulty and I should retest again today?:svengo:

We are getting one ( with the nets) for the kids at Christmas time. I'm getting very excited- I have some fond childhood memories of playing on our tramp ( ours had no nets or even pads back then) I'm hoping the kids never experience a nasty accident whilst using it, but I feel the same when they ride off on their bikes (popping monos of course), ride horses, and swing from the rope attached to the shed roof.