Shabby Miss Jenn

Wednesday 24 November 2010

oh dear...

it's been far too long since my last update...ooooooops! not quite my intentions as things were going along so well there for awhile and i had some time to update a little regularly....pfffttt that went by the wayside now hey?!

life has been pretty full on this past month...ahhhh who am i kidding life has been really hectic, quite chaotic and in the mix of it all there has been some really tough stuff to get through.

you all know lance had an operation about 2.5 months ago and we were having a nurse out everyday to tend to his open wound? well for about 2 weeks some silly doctor thought it would be good for a nurse to pop out once every 2 days.....that really messed things up and now nursing is back out everyday to tend to his open wound. we have been back to clinic 3 times now and for the past 6 weeks his wound has not been healing whatsoever...nope not closing and pretty much causing more trouble for the poor kid.

anyway last clinic trip the 2 doctors that saw us are quite concerned about his wound and we go back next week to see whether or not they go back in for more surgery...this time to explore and see what's going on or if it has healed by then he will be placed on the waiting list for the next operation which will be more of a major one. either way we still have one more operation to happen they just can't to the next major one till this darn thing heals up.

lance has managed real well...mostly! there has been the odd moment and i believe that as of this past week his patience has now worn fairly thin and he is more anxious waiting for the nurse to come out each day and simply can't focus on anything else until they have packed and padded the open wound...and left! like i said poor kid!!!

grace has finished school....yes finished for good with the exception of a possible tertiary education in the next year or 2 she is done....wow all those years and it's all over with. anyway considering our family dynamics and her own stress load i think she did fairly well. results come out next month and it'll all depend on what her enter scores are as to whether or not she gets into uni or takes a gap year and gets a job.

steph has just finished exams and finishes school tomorrow. her next path in life is to attend senior secondary and we are just finalising those details now. i have my concerns about that....ahhhh what the heck...i am really worried about her transition and how she is going to manage because of her autism, depression, anxiety, learning difficulties and visual impairment. i have spoken to the school on a couple of occasions and am just waiting for a phone call from one of the assistant principals so we can get together with the disability manager and disability senior officer to see what supports they can offer steph to help her manage her next leap into the mainstream school system.

isaac is now out of school full time, i know i mentioned this in my last post and since then he is doing quite well. that is much better then when he was in school on a very modified program. his anxieties for the most part are under control although he still can't leave the house with the exception of the occasional drive to take another kid elsewhere but that's good and anything else is simply a bonus and you know what?...for the moment i'm not worried at all because we're able to have some much needed breathing space.

ok there is so much more i could say but i won't however i'll leave you with a couple of pics i took recently.

 spider web in front garden
 charmaine and grace
 gorgeous grace
 charmaine and grace
 gorgeous grace
 charmaine
 the girls
grace's boyfriend jo and the girl herself


ok outta here, take care and let's hope the next post is a little sooner then this one....far too much time in between. hugs chris xoxo

Monday 1 November 2010

opportunity...

thursday night i had the absolute privilege to speak to the y service club of bendigo about bendigo autism asperger group and autism. i had been invited a few weeks back to be guest speaker to this club and so kerry (vice-president) and myself honoured that commitment and had the most wonderful evening. wow what an inspiring organisation! of course i've heard of them and for years but this particular group of men are an inspiration to us all. i was certainly in awe of who they are, what they represent and how amazing they are. no matter their backgrounds, no matter their situations...they truly are a 'brotherhood'.

their motto is..."to acknowledge the duty that accompanies every right"...there's alot of wisdom in that one quote!!!


i must also mention that the presentation went exceptionally well, was very well received and quite a number of questions were asked and all were answered...and i remained calm!!! i am only human after all however i was in perfect 'sync' with presenting...as if i've been doing this for years and seeing as i've only been in the role of president for 3 months...there truly are only more amazing opportunities to come.


oh did i also mention that i received a frame certificate and a mug as a thank you. frame is not yet on the wall as i need to take that to our next committee meeting on the 8th of November and i use the mug for pretty much every cuppa hubby makes me....yep that's his job....the cuppa maker!


ok so what else is new in the turnbull household you may well ask?

apart from 
  • district nursing still coming for lance but now only every 2nd day (last week and this week) and the fact that he needs to go in for more surgery. 
  • isaac now no longer within the school system and is now in a technical phase of a 'deemed enrolment' to at least the end of the year. 
  • grace studying like crazy due to it being exam week with 2 down, 1 today and more to go. 
  • the lead up to transition for steph with the next phase in her life which is yr 11 @ bendigo senior secondary school and the formal coming up for yr 10. 
  • the christmas lead up for our family
  • the christmas lead up for everyone else
  • the christmas lead up for baag and up and coming events
  • committee meetings, appointments, emails, webmails, website events, phone calls, working through the list and all for baag
  • rearranging the lounge room, dining room and kitchen....readying it for christmas
  • organising the craft area
  • dabbling in a little scrapbooking and have a few lo's up my sleeve now both paper and digi
  • gardening with this beautiful weather we are having
  • housework....always the housework as that doesn't stop however eternally grateful to the house hubby that i married 
i think that might be it...lol yes and as much as i'm certain i've forgotten to mention something...i guess you can tell that life even for us is rather 'flat out' and busy for now...well it's pretty much like that everyday!
so with all that and more to come i'll leave you with one thought...

"if there is no struggle, there is no progress" - frederick douglass

till next time take care, hugs chris xoxo