Sleep/netball/trains

So all of my kids are asleep and it is almost 5pm. Is that bad? probably (they won't go to bed until 9 now). Do I care? Nope. We have been on the go all day today, I am enjoying the peace and quiet. It won't ruin them.

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Tonight I play my first ever netball game. Should be interesting. I have a feeling I might get in trouble a bit. There is supposed to be no contact in netball. I am used to playing soccer where the hip and shoulder are great to use. Thankfully the place that we are playing at doesn't require us to wear skirts. I don't know if I could manage playing any sport in a skirt. Netball uniforms are made out of thin spandex type material with a little skirt at the bottom. Not the most forgiving outfit for any mom, if you know what I mean.

I do have to say that they have some cool names for the different positions, as a friend pointed out recently. Wing attack and wing defense are probably the best.

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Brandon left for Brisbane early Monday morning on a four day business trip. Today he is supposed to be crawling around on a bunch of trains. Something tells me he is really enjoying today. He is up there with his boss, who is introducing him to various people that they are working with. Brandon called me last night and said that the weather up there reminds him of Indiana. Warm and humid.



Brandon is enjoying the people contact this office job provides. His boss isn't into religion but likes to debate. Brandon likes to debate as well so they manage.

Apparently everyone at B's office thinks we are crazy for having three kids under 4. I told Brandon sometimes I think we are crazy too :-)

When they found we are going to be homeschooling Jolene they all got very concerned. Of course the classic social questions came out. Boring, ask something new! The social thing has surely been put to rest by now. You can anti-social and go to a school just as you can be social and be home taught. I suppose Brandon and I have the job of proving this to them and reassuring them that we are not weirdos as a result of our homeschooling background. Having said that maybe you are all saying right now "not weirdos, that's what you think" :-)

Showing love

I am writing quickly as the girls are busy playing with the train set.

A few days ago I meet a lady through my freecycle group who was asking for things that could be donated to her family and friends who lost their houses in the fire. Several of us on freecycle replied. She wrote back saying the donations were appreciated but she was unable to make the 1+ hour trip down to Geelong. I e-mailed her back and said I didn't mind making the drive up to her with all the stuff.

So Tuesday I sent out a notice to our church and the freecycle group that they could drop items off at the church hall on Wednesday night.

Brandon and the kids came with me last night to the church hall. We were there from 7:30-9pm. Within that time people donated enough items to fill up three cars! Yikes (in a good way). So Friday my sister and I are going to drive our cars up with as many items as we can possibly stuff into our cars. I figured we would leave at nap time so that the kids can just sleep in the car (even Jolene will sleep in the car).

I have realized through this that there are many people willing to donate items but only a few that are free and able to drive them to where they need to go. Our own city council said it couldn't pay for the petrol to send things up (silly I know).

News on the camp. It has so far survived! By God's grace he kept it standing. According to the neighbours living next to the camp there up to 7 fire trucks protecting it at one point. This is very humbling for us as a church seeing as though some of those firefighters lost their homes in the fire. It was undeserved for us to keep our camp. Because it has been spared we are looking into using it as a refuge centre for those who have lost their homes. We might even get to go up and cook for them. Please pray for this opportunity. It would be a great way to show love to that community which has lost so much.

I'm on Google maps

Sorry I know this is so nerdy but I was so excited to find this out that I have to post it!

So Google has been sending out cars all over the world to capture streets at a walking view. Well check out this link to our house



I am carrying Adele. I think it must be the summer of 2007. Either right before or after we went to Sydney with my sister Abby.

Oh, and can you find Jolene? She is there too.

This is my claim to fame.

Oh our house is the brick one that our car is parked next to.

You should all check out your addys to see if you can claim the fame as well. Send me a comment if you have anything to share.

This is our state...

it's on fire




Someone from church went up today to check on the camp. It was looking like it might be ok as of this afternoon. Having said that the winds have changed direction again. We won't know for sure for a couple more days now.

We are beginning to think about ways we can serve the community up there. Our church has had a camp there for 100 years so we are fond of the region and the community.

Keep you posted as the ideas solidify.

A sad day

Some of you may be hearing about all the bush fires we are having right now.

Yesterday and Today have had the worst bush fires in many, many years. Over 105 people have died so far and over 600 houses lost.

I feel for these people. Fires are such a horrible thing to experience. We didn't even see our house burn down and it took a while to get over. I used to get into a panic when I saw black smoke in Geelong. I was always scared I would turn down our street and see the house in flames. These people are going through so much more. Possessions can be replaced lives cannot. But saying that, it is very hard to loose your home. It is like you have lost part of your identity. Mainly different objects that you relate to different memories.

If you think of it pray for Pete, Abby's fiance. He is out fighting the fires with the CFA. He was out almost all of last week and will be gone for most of this week.

You could also pray for our churches camp site. It is out in the bush, a place called Dixons Creek where one of the fires is. We two dorms, a hall, and a house on the site. It would be sad to loose it all.

You could also pray for our friend Brett who is a paramedic. He was called out yesterday to help with those who have been injured.

Most of all though pray for the rains to come, the winds to die down, and for the safety of the people near the fires.

Here are a few articles to read if you haven't seen any yet.

Article 1
Article 2
(just added) Article 3 (mentions Dixon's Creek where our camp is located),
Photos 1
Photos 2


Part of problem with these fires has been the sudden change in weather. On Saturday the temp was up to 46 (116) degrees and the wind was coming from the NW (called a "northerly") at about 55-70 km/hr. This was at 3pm. By 5pm the temp had dropped to 33 (90) degrees and the wind had completely changed directions (called a "cool change"), now coming from the SW at 50-70km/hr. This violent change in direction and temp caught some off guard. People were set up for the winds coming from the NW, but when the winds changed to the SW the fire completely reversed direction. I took snapshots of the weather station's web site recording the change. If this type of violent change in weather would have happened in Indiana you would have seen tornadoes. It is too dry here for tornadoes. Thank goodness for that. I can't think of anything worse than a tornado on fire.

3:00pm

4:30pm

5:00pm

GORD

is what I have. GORD stands for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.

I have been sick on and off for a few months now. At first it was just little stomach cramps that I attributed to some gastro bug. After a few weeks it went away. Following that time I would get sick every so often after eating. I didn't think much of it until a few weeks ago when I started to get really sick.

There have been a few nights where I can't move for several hours due to the pain being so bad. It feels like cramps, my stomach on fire, and a really bad back ache. Two weeks ago I hardly ate or drank because I was feeling so bad. That was not good seeing as though I am still feeding Gideon. It was a great weight loss program!

Anyway I decided to go to the doctor after a night where the pain was so bad I almost went to the hospital. Brandon wanted to take me but I didn't want to make the effort to find a babysitter and get myself to the car. We didn't go. The next day I scheduled an appointment.

The doctor said what I have is the above.

Here is the definition on the paper he gave me.
"Oesophagitis is inflammation of the lining of the oesophagus which is usually caused by irritation from the reflux of acid from the stomach into the oesophagus."

You can get this from a bacteria. I just had a test to see if I am positive. If I am a simple anti-biotic will take care of it.
It can also be caused by a hiatus hernia. So if my bacterial test comes back neg. I might have to go in for a gastroscopy to see what is going on in my tummy. After thinking about it for a while I believe my pregnancies have contributed to this. Towards the end of each one I get really bad reflux. Gideon's pregnancy was especially bad.

As of right now I am doing a bit better by just watching my diet. I have to eat 5-6 little meals a day. No acidic foods, caffeine, and spices. Boring.

Even with the diet I still have some bad hours. They seem to come more at night, which I am thankful for. Brandon is home at that time and can help with the kids if I need to lie down. It is frustrating because sometimes a simple chai will give me pain for a few hours. Annoying, I like chai.

There is medication I could take but I would have to stop breastfeeding. The side effects are pretty yucky too so I don't think I want to go down that road. They are called PPI's, proton-pump inhibitors. Gleaning from my biology degree these inhibitors would block the proton pumps. Some of those pumps are called ATPases. ATPases take a tri-phosphate and break it into a di-phosphate and a mono-phosphate. This reaction creates energy which is harnessed by the cell to do other little jobs. In my case the medicine would stop the ATPases from making energy which the stomach cells would use to create acid. Lower amounts of acid mean less pain. There you go another science lesson. Isn't biology cool?! Oh one little factoid to remember. When you see something that ends with "ase" it usually means that object is an enzyme. Some handy nomenclature for you all.


Because I used to work in a structural biology lab I am always interested in what these little guys (the professor I used to work for would not have liked me calling them "guys") look like. Here is a model of an ATPase.



Here is a diagram of the pump within the ATPase.