As of 2.36pm 1st December Oliver Thomas came into the world and made Graham and I grandparents for the first time. He’s gorgeous and he and his mum are doing well. I expect our lives are going to change forever now – in a totally new direction.
Well, we live in a beautiful area now and I expect 9 months of the year it will be great but the reality of summer is starting to set in and we do have to be watchful and alert for this forthcoming season.
The ‘reality’ of where we are now living hit home last night as I attended my first CFA Community awareness meeting for safety from bushfires. Graham had stuff he had to get done for a forthcoming MTB race so I went on my own and reported back to him on my return home. I have a long list of things to type up now. There is a ‘street meeting’ happening here soon for residents of our street so we’ll both go along to that together for more specific information.
I met a lady who lives in our street down the other end so it was nice chatting to her. Her husband is a ‘firie’ with the CFA. I’m going to find out about the community fireguard groups and see if I can join one. And I’ll be learning what I can about our local CFA station too. I’m a strong believer of getting involved in community to fit in and belong. And I’m keen to meet the locals and become one of them.
Oh, and I have looked up a local tennis club too. We have a court here on our new property and it makes sense that I should get back into tennis so I can actually play with my opponents instead of frustrating them.
Well, we’ve been here almost 3 weeks. Still got heaps of unpacking to do and it’s slower going now we’ve both returned back to work over the past two weeks. But we’ll get there.
Housewarming this weekend – wanted to get that in before all the Christmas events.
I go outside each day to take photos or just enjoy. This afternoon I walked the circumference of our private park which is a tree lined lawn. There were two magpies singing to each other – beautiful. And a kookaburra watching for worms.
The air was getting stifling and the sky dark. I noticed that Maa, our sheep, was lying down panting heavily and I was worried about her. I went to her in her pen but she wouldn’t get up and just sniffed me. So I came inside and got a metal bowl and filled it with water and took it back out to her. While I was there it started thundering and then I could hear the wind rushing in the distance. She wouldn’t take the water from the bowl or my hand but got up and walked away and did a wee and then kept walking.
Perhaps she sensed the storm – I just wanted to make sure she was ok. Anyway as I started walking back to the house it was really eery and the wind came fast amongst the trees and small branches and leaves flying everywhere. I just got back inside and the wind hit with a force and I was sweating badly – like a sudden heat rise. The rain hit not long after and I opened the doors to let the fresh air and the scent of rain in. Love that smell. I remember reading a story a long time ago of a child describing that smell as being God nearby.
As I sat in my office which has a window looking out the front and into the street I saw a very looooooong white stretch limo with wedding ribbons pull up. I thought ‘oh oh’ they’re in trouble. If you knew our street there is a 23% grade uphill ahead of the limo with bends and the two roads opposite are very windy, one quite steep. I wondered what the limo was going to do when I saw 4 young men in wedding suits come up the hill from one of the roads opposite towards the limo. They stopped and changed their shoes – must have had walking shoes on. Now I understood that the limo was waiting for them and wasn’t going to attempt either one of those hilly roads. It moved forward up the steep incline instead. Guess it might have done it before as there are some very popular wedding reception places only 5 mins from here.
It’s raining outside – probably the first rain we’ve had since we shifted in, although we had fog on our very first morning here. Loving this area.
We have some gorgeous roses and other flowers I don’t yet know the name of. Also lovely grounds with gum trees. I’ve posted a lot of photos at flickr and if you click on the photo below you’ll get to see more. I will be adding to this group of photos over time.
Well, we’re in our new home, although far from being organised as yet. Last Saturday ended up being really crazy and not like the planned day I thought it was going to be. It started off with the removalists turning up over an hour early and me making a mad scramble to find cats who went into hiding. They were already freaked out by all the growing boxes in almost every room and were stressed. And then I was trying to shove them into cages they didn’t want to be in and then in the car. Why was I doing that to them?
One started crying straight away, another about 10 mins later and the third about 30 mins into the trip. Thank goodness it was only about 45 mins to where I was going with 3 crying cats and a car full of boxes to be unloaded.
Poor Graham didn’t get to be at our home till the other end of the day after he’d oversighted the loading of 3 trucks (yes, 3!) full of our stuff (and the old house is still not fully empty), had his precious bikes loaded into a mate’s van and our son-in-law transferred all our electrical equipment (computers, amplifiers, ham radios, etc) in two carloads.
Our eldest, Melanie, was dropped off by her husband on his way through to help Graham early in the morning and she helped me unpack and put away as the boxes started coming in.
The kitchen and pantry were the first to be fully finished, the bedroom is nearly there and our office is halfway set up.
Our internet connection did not happen as it should have, despite being ordered a month ago and now we have a war between our ISP and the main Telco as to whose responsibility it is to run a drop wire from the pole outside to our house so we can have an internet connection. Not happy Jan!
So I had to source a wireless broadband USB connection and am using that as a temporary measure at the moment. Being offline and away from my internet based business for 5 days was more than enough for me – I needed to be in touch with what was happening and contact clients who were probably wondering where I was.
Will have pics for you sometime soon – I hope!
The past few weeks have been a flurry of open house inspections, constant cleaning and tidying up, going out so people could come in, and preparing for an auction which took place last Saturday.
Well, the auction is over but it was nail biting. We stood in the front doorway of our home Saturday afternoon as we heard the auctioneer outside in the street calling out the bids. The street was lined with cars and there were a good 30 or 40 people out there watching the proceedings. It boiled down to around 3 couples bidding once it got serious but there could have been more. Hard to tell.
Graham and I were inside next to each other praying and listening. Our Christian Real Estate advocate was with us saying ‘thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus’ each time a new bid was called out. Graham’s sister had turned up from interstate and was there with us and her husband outside taking photos and watching everything that was happening. We had no idea they were in the state and they rocked up 40 mins before the auction to surprise us and stand with us to give us support. Their names are Viv and Rod.
Well, all I can say is that we got what we were asking for although it seemed impossible it would happen. There were times over the past couple of months when we really felt the real estate people were trying to make us sell for far less than we wanted. But in the end we got over and above what we were being told we should aim for.
Graham and I had the same figure in our heads and it turned out, so did Viv and Rod who’d been praying for us. But we’d not shared that figure with each other. God met our needs. Graham’s sister and brother-in-law were telling us what we’ll need to do to look after the land as they have land also in a country town in South Australia. They’ve staying at a friend’s place and will be here for a couple more days so we’ll go out for dinner with them one night soon to celebrate.
When Graham went to church Saturday night for camera duty he rang before the service started to see if I’d come back down to ground yet. I told him I was packing and had hit the ground running!
Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts – they meant a great deal!
It seems that everywhere I look online, there are people I know who are moving home or shifting house – however you’d like to refer to it.
This year alone 3 of our daughters shifted home, 2 did this while we were overseas in June.
And now we’re shifting at the end of this month.
Today, two separate newsletters I receive had stories about the authors moving house. And some of my Virtual Assistant team have done the same this year.
Perhaps 2009 is the year of the move. It certainly seems that way.
I read with amusement Flying Solo Sam’s story of trying to get some semblance of order after having recently shifted. Will Graham and I be feeling the same way in about 2 or 3 week’s time? Possibly. I like to think that as I’m packing and sorting through things I will be organised. All the packed boxes so far are marked with the contents and the room they will go into. I’ve got a marked up plan, enlarged, of our new home and it will be stuck on the wall by the front door for the removalists so they know what room to put things in. Well, that’s the plan anyway.
My biggest concern is will I finish packing in time for the shift?
And my goal is to get our bedroom, kitchen and office organised first – in that order. The other rooms can have closed doors till we’re ready to sort them out. The washing will have been done before we shift, same with the food shopping. So hopefully when we do have visitors I won’t feel like I’m still in a mess.
We are planning a house warming and “Prayer and Blessing” party on the third weekend in November as that’s the only weekend my husband hasn’t got an MTB race. I expect he’ll be looking to see what I’ve managed to do while he’s away each of the other weekends.
In less than 2 weeks my husband and I will be shifting to our new home. I’m in the process of packing now – not my favourite job and therefore I’m easily distracted and find myself back at my computer often (which is why I’m here right now).
Our current home is still on the market and the auction is on 24th October so I can’t have boxes sitting everywhere around the house. We have put some into storage and we are using one room to store packed boxes as well but once the auction has passed (and hopefully our home is sold) we can go crazy in that last week packing almost everything in sight. I hope I have gotten a good percentage of it done by then though.
We are shifting on 31st October and I’ve had some o/seas friends tell me that’s on Halloween but I do need to point out that Australians do not observe the Halloween celebrations although those from the US living in our country may do.
However, in Melbourne, Australia, that weekend is Melbourne Cup weekend and the first Tuesday in November each year is a public holiday in the Melbourne metro area. Melbourne Cup is known as the race that stops the nation and that is quite true. Even when we lived in South Australia we took the afternoon off at our govt dept and had a barbeque, ran sweepstakes and watched the race on the biggest TV screen we could find.
It is good that we are shifting that weekend. My husband has been able to arrange for the Monday off (which is common for businesses in Melbourne) and we have four days to move and unpack and start to settle into our new home.
Guess I better go back to my packing and I look forward to unpacking it all and finding new homes for each item in less than two weeks’ time. Betcha it takes me less time to unpack than it does to pack! 😉
I’ve been experimenting for many months, the different sites and tools available to photographers out there.
I’ve finally decided to host the site myself and manually manage the print orders as they come through. So I’m using a combination of WordPress for the site (not as a blog but as a site) and GetDropBox for the photogallery.
I’m still tweaking it but it’s almost as I want it. Why not have a look and let me know your thoughts? You can find it at http://www.photosbykathie.com.
It’s official. Graham and I have bought a new home. We shift in end of October and I can’t wait! Our Cheltenham home is now on the market.
Thought I’d share some pics with you. It’s on 2 acres of land, mostly flat but we do have a bit of bushland on a slope. I can’t wait to take photos there of the bird life and just enjoy the peace and quiet of the surroundings there.
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