catching up with ben & laura
June 26, 2009 at 10:36 pm · Filed under family
one empty riccadonna bottle, and some tired smiles are the only signs of the end of our latest educational endeavour.
Ben is now quite impressively qualified as not just husband and father, but shopfitter, joiner, carpenter and builder… if he had a business card, I’m not sure they would all fit on.
The journey has been arduous and not without some damage felt in our family life. Memories surfaced of our first years of marriage, as my uni degree ruled our relationships – with each other, our family and friends. The past 9 months have been an incredibly testing time for us both, attempting to maintain so many important activities simultaneously with the arrival of Annalise was ultimately, an impossible juggling act.
It is with great expectation that we look to the next 6 months, living without tafe, and regular non-weather reliant work at least for the next 2 months, along with reconnecting with bible studies, church, friends and sport.
God is good.
(elie showing what happens when mum leaves the food colouring dropper in her reach whilst decorating Ben’s celebration muffins!)
June 12, 2009 at 12:37 pm · Filed under general
Over the past months, Ben and I have been having multiple discussion regarding our once casual uploading of photos and information about our family and friends.
On joining facebook, I went through the security settings in detail to ensure as much protection as was available. Still, though, there are potential leaks – any image of a friend "tagged" can be accessed by any of that friend’s friends, and so on… I myself, have found myself trailing through a complete strangers photo album because of something that ‘appeared’ on my fb homepage.
Hearing and reading of other’s concerns, I began to realise I had been careless, posting images of friends and their children, without consent. It was a sobering reality check to remember that what may appear seemingly harmless (group photo of Elie with her friends, or photos taken at a friends wedding) may not actually be appreciated by our friends who are endeavoring to protect their family. Even more frightening, the reality that such precious memories might be accessed by complete strangers.
On our own blog, I stopped labeling photos, to avoid google image search accidentally finding some of our images in random searches. But we still upload relatively good quality images for our family to download because of the distance that separates us. 
This article in the SMH sticks out as a marked reminder that once uploaded on the web, nothing is private.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/web/they-purloined-my-pixels/2009/06/11/1244664787779.html
in light of the above, I’ll be putting a post together of our wonderful brief holiday in Sydney soon – which incidentally will have images of very low resolution, thanks to our clever daughter who in playing with the camera at some point managed to change the pixel setting from 4meg to 0.3meg…
May 28, 2009 at 10:28 am · Filed under carpe diem, family
tapping of keys replacing paws moving around me, for me, with me.
Favourite haunts, empty of life;
toys beds and bones loved, now strange and unfamiliar;
backyard lonely and sad… avoided.
how long before I wash away her last muddy prints on our floor?
how long before I stop looking for her?
how long before Elie stops calling for her and asking where she is before matter of factly saying ‘Murph gone. away. hole’
Melting sorrow, knowing time helps fade the pain, wanting relief yet seeking solace in sadness.
Flowers, emails, texts and calls full of love, giving perspective, providing smiles and ensuring hope.
Love. Given by God to humanity. Shared with creation. Experienced by all that live.
Life. The longer lived, the more pieces of heart forever lost, and yet paradoxically, simultaneous and awesome, the joy of experiencing the heart exponentially increase with capacity through precious relationship.
Joy. For our beautiful family, the delight of our children, the love of our friends.
Thanks be to God, we have eternal hope that life is not without meaning and purpose. Assurance. Peace.
Great God, Father of all, creator, friend. We thank you for bringing Murphy to our family. Her short, wonderful life. Imprinted on us always. Forever loved. We thank you for designing us for relationship not just with humanity, but all creation.
May 25, 2009 at 3:17 pm · Filed under general
The past 24 hours have given me much cause to reflect and consider the consequences of life. This month contains quite a few milestones for our family, Eliana turning 2 last week, Ben and I celebrating 9 years since our first date, and on Sunday, a very sad day where I will remember my cousin Ben, his family and the 10 years that have passed since his decision to leave this world.
Today, I took our beloved pooch Murphy on what will be her last walk to the beach. Those who have met and known Murph will agree that she is completely lovable and beautiful in personality. Ben and I don’t want her memory tainted by her recent behaviour toward any animal she perceives as a threat to our family, but it is what has caused the heartbreaking decision to put her down.
The thing I have often been irritated with the in reality tv shows, is the contestants refusal to acknowledge any regret. It seemed like folly to me, given their behaviour/antics. In light of our current situation, it has become apparent to me that I also want to vehemently refuse to regret any decisions relating to Murphy. And in many ways, it is right to deny complete regret for her becoming part of our family. She was my baby while Eliana was inutero, and gave me cause for constant fittness during our first months of moving here. Through Murph, we have met and formed wonderful friendships with many people from all walks of life. Both girls have had ‘beach aunties’ and ‘uncles’ come to their baptisms.
Those of you who own dogs, know the joy they bring. I don’t have the strength to list the wonderful ways Murph has enriched our lives. But I have to regret our decision now, and in some ways, I also regret my decision to bring her into our family because her behaviour has progressively deteriorated since having the girls. There has never been a question of her loyalty to Eliana and Annalise, nor any danger ever towards them. Murphy’s issues have revolved completely around her love for us, and determination to protect our family from danger. How distressing it is to me, that it is her love for me that is the cause for her demise.
One of the many challenges I face in writing this, is the acknowledgement that she is only a dog, and it seems almost blasphemous to feel this way about something unhuman. Particularly given the grief I have for her is nothing when compared with those family and friends who have passed on from this world. But still the pain and sorrow exists, and I her to be remembered for all her beauty and love.
I haven’t got the strength to tell those of you who know and love her as we do in person. Regardless of her only being an "animal" and absolutely nothing compared with Eliana and Annalise, she will always remain my baby, helping form the friendships we now have with neighbours and friends. I have and will always love you my Murph Murph. We will miss you more than is reasonable.
May 23, 2009 at 9:45 pm · Filed under general
two weeks ago we packed as much of the house as we possibly could into the car and on roof racks and headed north for 6 nights. The trip to the Gold Coast was made enjoyable from several factors, the more prominent ones being stopping over in Coffs for a night, thus avoiding a double stop in one trip, and most surprisingly (or perhaps not to all the other parents out there) the loaning of one transportable dvd player/screen which meant the girls had Wiggles on tap, leaving Ben and I able to converse on more topics that the usual repertoire of Wiggles characters, spotting cows (though this was still a favourite activity – but they were few and far between) and singing nursery rhymes/colin buchanan repeatedly. This was a worthy aid, as Ben was quite ill with a lung infection, which meant he could just be a passenger, and not chief entertainer on our trip north.
We had a lovely catch up with friends in Coffs, enjoying their company and wonderful cooking before hitting the road for the Gold Coast via one super McDonalds at Ballina (highly recommended by Eliana).
Our $49/night accommodation was superb, and well worth the 70min one on one sales pitch by Acor (it’s meant to be a 90min meeting, so it was a small victory to us that we managed to convince them so effectively of our inability to be involved).
Our balcony overlooked the canals behind the Convention Centre, and more importantly a park for the girls. Though adequate, our local parks here can’t even come close in comparison to what the Gold Coast had to offer – spongey floors, sun shades and oodles of very expensive equipment!
Our first full day of the holiday was spent enjoying the fabulous blue skies (something we’ve seen very little of this year with Port’s average of 1.5m of rain this year) and wandering from park to park to park… we hit 6 in the one day, two of those multiple times!
Saturday saw us heading to Sea World, getting through the doors at 9.45, and leaving at 5pm. For me, the highlights were catching up with good friends that have moved from Port, one whose son was born a few hours before Eliana, and also our old neighbours who moved to Brisbane early this year. Eliana’s favourite activity was hanging on the pirate ship, spotting the dophins, and the kiddie world rides. Ben got a taste of almost everything, water slides, rides and animals, and loved hopping in the rides with Elie. Anna loved the pretty fish, and cuddles with her favourite old neighbour.
The rest of our holiday was spent relaxing within the apartment complex, , and most enjoyably on a big walk to the parks with Eliana’s favourite friend and his little brother. Apparently we were quite entertaining to look at, with an Asian tour group becoming hyper-excited at the sight of two phil&ted double prams with two boys and two girls (seemingly a double set of twins) seated in them.
The trip home was long, but livable thanks to Colin, the Wiggles, the DVD screen and almost an hour playtime at both McDonalds we stopped at on our way home. Though short, and despite my only averaging a few hours sleep each night thanks to 2yr molars, 7 month teeth and a sick husband we had a wonderful time away, and certainly gave us the lift we needed to keep chugging into 2009.
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one empty riccadonna bottle, and some tired smiles are the only signs of the end of our latest educational endeavour.
