School Concert

How do you like this photo of Jalen in the school concert? Can't see him!? No - I didn't either!!! :) From where I was sitting Jalen was hidden right around the corner behind the curtain and I didn't get to see him at all! I even moved to see if I could take a photo, but still couldn't see him. It sounded good anyway!

The school put on an hour long concert today. Each class performed a different song on the xylophones. They were very impressive. Even the little Prep kids did really well. There were about 70 parents there to watch.

I have kept Noah home from school the last two days. He is fine - just stuffed up in the nose mainly and coughing a bit and tired, so I thought it would be good for him to have a couple of days off to rest. It was nice to take him up to school for an hour today though, so he could listen to the music and see the kids from his class. His aide - Di still has to go to school, even if Noah is sick. She usually just works with the other children in Noah's class or they put her in an another class to work with other children with special needs who don't have a lot of aide time. It was nice as she got to have a cuddle with him during the concert.

Harri was excited to be able to sit with Jalen. He wasn't impressed with the music though as he kept waiting for them to play songs from 'High School Musical' and it just didn't happen. He is obsessed with High School Musical at the moment. So much so that he has to watch it every morning when he wakes up and has to listen to the soundtrack when he goes to bed!

Male Models

Tonight was the Kings Meadows High School's fashion parade (yes - we have had a busy night tonight - plus I played basketball too!). Aaron has been organising it with the Prefects for a little while now. Two of the Prefect girls have actually been planning it all year, but the past couple of weeks it has been full on organising and practicing for it, so Aaron has been home later than usual. Aaron is the Prefect Co-Ordinator which means he has a lot of extra responsibilities.

Aaron and the other teachers were the 'surprise act'. Aaron came out on his own, dressed as a 'street baller' (supposedly that is what they call themselves - I think I am getting old!). He said there are a bunch of guys at school who come dressed half in school uniform and half in basketball gear. He was very funny and everyone was cracking up laughing. He came out posing and carrying on like the students do.


The MC on the mic was a student and he pretended to be a teacher and kept saying 'put that mobile phone away Kingy' and Aaron kept talking back to him like a student saying 'but I'm just turning it off!', and 'but my Mum is going to text me!'


Then he just had to go and flash his Hawthorn boxers! Everyone just about wet themselves laughing. Jay thought it was hilarious and kept saying 'Dad is the funniest'!.

A group of other teachers then came out all dressed in school uniform and acted like students too. It was very funny.

After the parade had finished I had lots of staff and some parents come up to me and talk to me about Aaron. One parent was saying how great he had been for her son and how her son loved having him and loved his sense of humor. One staff member came up and said 'you are the poor woman married to Aaron then'!? I laughed and she said 'no actually- he brightens up the place'. I can only imagine! The students gave him a box of chocolates to thank him for all the help that he had given them to organise the parade. They were very yummy - I don't think he even got half of them ;)

When the fashion parade was over, Jay and Harri decided it was their turn to do some modeling. They had all the moves - lots of different poses and they strutted their stuff up and down the cat walk.


There was even a change of clothes in the middle!

Everyone was clapping them which encouraged them even more. I told everyone they were just like their Dad and they all agreed! :)

Pulling Out The Big Guns!

Today was the Jitterbug's basketball team's last game of the winter season. We get a three week break and then after the school holidays we are back into it again. Jalen told me in the van on the way to basketball that tonight he was 'pulling out the big guns'! The week before he didn't have a great game and he told me that last week he only 'pulled out the medium guns'! He is such a crack up.

During the half hour practice before the game he had two injuries resulting in tears. I kept telling him that I get hurt in basketball every week but you have to keep going - you can't give up and cry or you miss half the game. He just said 'but it really hurts Mum'! Poor old Jay isn't very resilient.

He was very happy with the game in the end as he scored three goals. He really did pull out the 'big guns' as he was right in the action the whole game - probably why he kept getting injured all the time. For the end of the winter season each player got a special certificate and ribbon. Jay was very proud of it.

Henry, Jalen and Sophie (from Jay's class at school)

Sick Noah

Poor Noah has been feeling sick today. Over the past few weeks he hasn't been great. It seems to be one thing after another right now. I'm definitely not complaining though as he hasn't actually been in hospital for two years now - two years!!! Before that he had actually been in hospital over 35 times so it really is amazing that he hasn't been in for so long.

He has been sick in the last two years, but we have been able to keep him out of hospital with help of his paediatrician - Dr Bailey, and also because we know how to manage things at home better. The only reason he really has to go into hospital now is if he needs oxygen or IV meds.

This morning he woke up crying, so I knew it wasn't going to be a good day. His carer Bridget was here to help get him ready for school, and while she was here he settled down (after lots of cuddles from me) so I decided to send him to school. He didn't seem sick this morning - just grumpy. Often he can be grumpy and then if he goes out he seems to settle down.

He was coughing during the night a little and woke up earlier than he usually does to be turned over (usually he wakes between 2am and 4am, but last night he woke at midnight). Noah sleeps in a hospital bed in our bedroom. The hospital bed is great as it means we can elevate his head easily. He used to sleep in Jay's room, but every night I would end up getting up to him a couple of times and by the time I heard him he would be screaming and would then be hard to settle back to sleep. Also he would often end up getting sick during the night and I wouldn't know until it was too late. After a few weeks of bringing him into our room during the night we decided it would just be easier if he moved into our room with us. It is very romantic ;)

All through the night I can hear him snoring and making lots of noises. I always know when it is time to roll him as he starts moving his legs first which wakes me. Once I roll him over he usually settles back down to sleep pretty quick - unless he isn't feeling great (and no - Aaron NEVER gets up. He has that thing that most men seem to have, where they can't hear the kids in the night - even when they are in the same room as him!!! Not long ago I decided I had enough of getting up to Noah every night so I told Aaron it was his turn. I had to wake Aaron up to get up to him so I was awake anyway. After three nights Aaron tells me he was so tired because of the broken nights sleep!!). I can't remember the last time I had a full nights sleep - I definitely haven't had one in the last 6 years - except maybe one or two nights when he was in hospital and Aaron stayed in with him while I came home for the night. It is funny though as I'm just used to it now and if Noah ends up not waking until about 5am I actually feel worse!

When I dropped off Noah at school I told his aide - Di, to ring me if he was upset or seemed sick and she was worried. Di also works as his carer at home 4 hours a week so she knows him very well. When I went to pick him up at 3pm she came up to me and said he had a good morning, but in the afternoon he started yelling a lot, and coughing and then vomited up his last feed. When I saw him he was not happy at all. He was breathing really fast and his temp was up and he looked really pale

I rang Dr Bailey's office straight away. They know us very well and are really nice about fitting us in. They know I only ring if I really need to as they know I can usually manage things pretty well on my own. I usually only ring when Noah's temp is up and he is breathing faster than normal as I know that usually means an infection which needs antibiotics. They said we could bring him down an hour later which we did.

Dr Bailey said his chest sounded OK - just a few little sounds that shouldn't have been there, but he didn't have a huge chest infection. He took a mouth and nose swab and said that it may be viral, but it could also be influenza A which is going around right now. He decided to prescribe him a broad spectrum antibiotic as he said if it is the flu then he could get a bacterial infection secondary to the flu, and the antibiotics will help. He did say that if it is viral then the antibiotics won't help, but we won't know till the swab results come back in a few days. So in the meantime he is on antibiotics - till we know what we are dealing with.

So that was our fun afternoon. Noah has settled down since coming home, but has vomited all night. We have decided to not give him his last feed as we know he just won't keep it down. Hopefully he will have a good night tonight and will wake up feeling a lot better in the morning. I am keeping him home from school tomorrow even if he wakes up okay - he probably just needs a day at home to rest - not that he does a lot of running around at school! ;) I actually feel that he has been very lucky this year - so many of the kids in his class have been away sick. Last week there were 8 kids away in one day and Noah has only had three days off school all year.

Exciting News!!!

Check out Jared and Becky's exciting news! It is dated Monday 27th August. We are so happy for them. And for those who are wondering - no, they aren't having another baby (just yet!).

Tea with Bec

Last night we had a girls night out planned (I typed this on Monday night - hoping that I could put it up on Tues, but can't work out how to actually post it so it shows up with Tues date! Oh well). Pip, Bec and I had planned on going out for tea. We hadn't been out without any kids since Oliver was born (he is now 4 months), so the plan was that Pip was going to feed Oliver and then leave him with Ben, and come out for tea.

We have two favourite places that we usually go to - either The Prickly Cactus (Mexican) or Suwan (Thai). Pip and Bec love going to Mexican to have nachos and every time we go they complain that they have eaten too much and feel sick. I always remind them that it makes them feel sick as I LOVE the Thai restuarant. I also like Mexican but not half as much as Thai. Last night after a couple of phone calls we decided that Thai was the go this time (yay!).

Usually Pip comes and picks us up and we all go together (driving with Pip is a whole other story!!), but we thought that we would meet at the restaurant this time as it would save time since we knew Pip wouldn't get in till late. I arrived first and a couple of minutes later Bec turned up. Just as she walked in, my mobile phone rang and it was Ben telling me that Pip couldn't come in. I really thought that he was joking (as Ben always does!) but realised that he was actually serious. Pip had been trying to feed Oliver all night and he just wouldn't feed. It had been 7 hours since his last feed and she was getting very frustrated with him. She didn't want to leave him at home in case he went to sleep and then woke up needing a feed while she was out. While we were on the phone she kept threatening Oliver that he was going on the bottle! She was very disappointed that it didn't work out.

So it turns out it was just Bec and I for tea. We had a lovely tea and it was nice to catch up. We both LOVE the spring rolls so we usually don't even have to look at the menu to know what we want, but we thought we would both try something different for main course. I got a really yummy mixed seafood stir fry and Bec got stir fry prawns and vegies. Usually I end up getting the sir fry chicken and cashew nuts and Bec gets a curry. Pip and Ben kept texting us throughout the night saying Pip was wishing she was there eating the coconut rice. We told her not to stress and that we will do an afternoon tea or lunch in the school holidays so she can bring Oliver and not be worried.


We talked a lot about how babies and children change your lives. I know when I was pregnant with Jay I didn't realise how different things would be with kids. I wouldn't change it for anything but your life is definitely not your own anymore. Of course I don't say this to scare Bec - especially as she is now 14 weeks pregnant and I'm allowed to spill the beans finally!!! We are really excited for Bec and Tone.

Bec was supposed to look sad in this photo because Pip wasn't able to come out for tea with us, but we still had a nice night. We are excited as we both decided to take an Adult Ed course together in October about how to use our digital SLR cameras. We both have great cameras but really don't know how to use them properly so we have both just enrolled online tonight in the Adult Ed course. Look out - I will really be the papparrazzi then!! :)

St Giles

In the paper on Saturday there was a two page article about St Giles. This year is their 70th birthday and The Examiner is running an appeal - hoping to raise up to $50,000. Noah goes to St Giles for all of his therapies - speech, physio and occupational therapy.

Noah's aide was sick today and we couldn't get a relief aide who was confident enough with him so I kept him home. We actually had an appointment in the afternoon at St Giles to see a specialist from Hobart, so it saved me having to pick him up from school.

It was such a nice day (almost broke out the short sleeve t-shirt!) that I thought it would be easier to just walk than to load the wheelchair in and out of the van. We are lucky that we don't live very far from St Giles. It was a big mistake to walk. Harri moaned all the way and walked so slow. He insisted on walking with his blankie and in the end I got sick of all the moaning and put him up in the wheelchair with Noah! Lucky the seat is big enough for him to sit between his legs. I don't think Noah could figure out what was going on!

While I was talking to the Dr I realised that Harri had gotten really quiet. I looked down at him and he had fallen asleep on the floor! The weekend is definately catching up with him. Noah's physio asked me if I had a camera on my phone and I told her I actually bought my camera with me as I wanted some photos of Noah out the front of St Giles. Great timing to have my camera with me!

We were hoping to talk the specialist into doing some more botox in Noah's calves but he didn't go for it. He has already had it once. He has to really justify spending $400 per injection and couldn't really justify it for the second time - bummer. He is very concerned about the scoliosis that Noah is developing though. It scares me whenever I see the curve in his spine, but as he said - there is not much else that we can do about it. We are already doing things to slow it down as much as possible, but unfortunately for kids like Noah is is very common. Hopefully he won't get to the point where he will need an operation on it.

The place to be

Ok - I'm getting a bit nervous about this blog thing now! Today I started to realise how many people actually read this thing and I am now worried - I think I have to start putting up some exciting things on here! Unfortunately nothing really exciting happens in the King house - unless you call changing nappies, and getting feeds and meds exciting! One day we may surprise you all and go travelling around the world or something exciting like that (we will keep dreaming!), but for now you have just got the boring everyday stuff.

Today was stake conference. It was so great to see Pop out of hospital and at church. I went and sat with him for a little while and he told me how happy he was to be out of hospital and he said that two and half months of staring at the four walls of the hospital room was long enough. He told me he was doing 'pretty good' and said he is just having trouble getting around and also isn't eating very much except for soup.

I joked with him that he needed a wheelchair and tears welled up in his eyes and he agreed and said he was 'holding out as long as possible'. We talked about how its sad to get old and he said that it has to happen to everyone and that he is now 86 and has had a good life, and I said to him that it is still sad when you can't do the thing that you want to do - he smiled and agreed. I told him that he could have races with Noah if he ended up getting a wheelchair and he thought that was funny.

I got this great photo of Dad with Pop after church.

After church we all went to the Bluff for a picnic lunch. It looks like a nice day - it was sunny, but actually very windy and quite cold.

Seems like the Bluff was the place to be as there were lots of others from church having lunch there also.

The extended Chayne Triffitt family

Dion, Kaye and kids

My gym buddy - Simone and Simon

Collettie and Merilyn

Tammy and Jason

The Polleys and the Rogers

Of course everyone joked about me being the papparrazzi again! I said that I have to get my moneys worth from my new camera! Felicity just knew I would be snapping photos :)

The boys had lots of fun playing. Jalen kept asking if he could go swimming. He finally agreed that just having a walk along the beach was good enough.


Noah isn't feeling very well or happy today. He slept the whole time we were at the Bluff and tonight he has been yelling a lot. Hopefully it isn't going to last all week. Wish we could figure out what is causing it for sure - we think it is his sinuses. We have an appointment to see an ENT but can't get into him till the 1st November.


It has been a really big weekend. Harri usually has a sleep most afternoons, but hasn't over the past two days, so he was zonked on the way home.

More fun on the farm

Yes Anna and Devin - I am doing two blog posts today! :) I have too much going on - think I need a holiday!

Today we went out to Mum and Dad's place to catch up with Jared, Becky and Kelsea while they were up for the weekend. We had an afternoon tea to celebrate Kelsea's birthday.


Dad had great fun showing off his scar from his operation to have the shunt put it. It made me very squirmish - almost enough to put me off my food, but anyone who knows me pretty well would know that it would have to be really bad for me to stop eating! :) He thought it was a great joke so he had to go and get his little jar of staples that he kept that came out of his head and stomach to show me!

After lots of yummy food we all went out to see the new baby lambs that have been born. The boys were very excited. First we went down to the sheep paddock to check to see if any sheep were lambing - we didn't have as much luck this time, there wasn't much going on.

The boys didn't care but had fun just running around and throwing rocks into the trough.

Jay was pestering Jared as usual, so Jared threatened to put his face in the sheep poo. That quickly stopped him!

We then went to the 'maternity paddock' as Dad put it to see the sheep with their lambs. Jay was very keen to hold the lamb that Mum caught straight away and wanted to give it a name.


Harri also loved seeing the lambs until he realised that he had dirty hands! Definately a city boy like his Dad!




Becky had fun playing with our new camera. She snapped some family photos and we realised that we all had brown and gold on! Aaron is always wearing his Hawthorn gear at the moment and Jalen wanted to wear his Hawks t-shirt today, so of course Harri decided he had to wear his Hawthorn jumper as well! Looks like we are about to go to the footy.

The boys had great fun playing cards with Grandma. Harri kept saying 'I want to win!'.

It was a really nice afternoon and it was great to see Jared, Bec and Kels again. We miss them now they are living down south.