A Blog About a Bloke-Living with WHS

Have you ever reached a point in your life where you are faced with several paths? The long one ahead of you is where your heart is telling you to go. The one to the left is filled with exciting possibilities. The one on the right causes you to suck in your breath and close your eyes and hope that when you open them, you made the right decision to go down there. So which would you choose? Ideally, a combination of all three would be good. Anyway. Right now, I choose to close my eyes and sleep. Because I am tired. And Ryley is tired and not that well. And Braeden, is Braeden, and full of energy-always.

Well. Ya'll know that this is THE blog post that is going to list all the awesome people/companies who have helped us raise some great funds for the WHS conference. First of all though, let me thank everyone who made the effort to come along to the night. Especially those that travelled from Melbourne, Willaura and Geelong (and anywhere else I have missed!). We really appreciate it!!! The great news is that we raised a little bit more that what we aimed for which means we can do most of the things we wanted to do. So. I will probably forget someone, or some company. But I am trying to make sure I remember everyone. If you see a name listed here and want to know more about them, send me an email and I will pass on the details. The big auction prizes, kindly donated by: Tattoo-Peter Mosby Smith and Will Paul Kellett Coates Hire Collins Transport Mel & Luke Young Simon Franc Michael Walsh Silent Auction Prizes, kindly donated by: Torque Power Chainsaw a...

Do you like my diagram? I drew it myself. Ha! Not really. I just liked it really because it shows how many sensory points there are within our bodies. My Occupational Therapist friends will probably yell at me for posting a stupid diagram.  But I really want to somehow show people how Ryley's body seems to be at the moment. He is so ticklish at the moment, that changing him and dressing is even more difficult than it was before. He is seeking out deep pressure and wants to wrestle and roll over me as soon as he gets home from school. Partly, I think that is him unwinding himself from a busy day (most of us just prefer to sit and stare at the TV, go for a walk, or have a stiff drink (or is that one just me?). And partly I think his body is changing a bit. He seems to be able to feel things more at the moment. For example if he slightly bumps himself, he screws his face up as if to say "that hurt". He seems to have more awareness of his body and how it works too. He watches...

So given that I am totally preoccupied with the coming fundraiser (AWHSSG Ballarat Conf '11 Major Fundraiser in case you missed it), I am going to be slightly slack here and instead of writing how wonderfully and awesome our time over in the Barossa Valley  hanging out with the Doecke Family was, I will simply put some photos up instead. I will just spend a moment though to share two major milestones that have occured in Braeden's life this week: 1. After 3 years and 7 months, he is completed weaned from breastfeeding!! That sure does look like a long time when I write it like that. He didn't feed to sleep while we were away (which was the only feed he was having), so I took the opportunity not to remind him. When we got home, he requested his 'more', and I told him it had run out. He was not happy. But he isn't protesting much. I am hugely proud of my efforts with breastfeeding. (Just as a side note-has anyone seen the movie 'Grown Ups' with Adam Sand...

Yep. Here we are. Holiday Week One. Over. I am just starting to wade through my emails, snail mail and catch up on FB/blogs. Not to mention the washing and the cleaning! We basically had an AWESOME week. As a result I have two very tired boys at the moment who are still catching up on the late nights. Now, I know you all probably won't believe what I am about to tell you. But I actually went up in a helicopter on our second day in the Barossa. I will admit that it wasn't a long flight, which is part of the reason why I actually did it. The other reason was because Ryley wanted to go up in it and we couldn't all go at once. I have always wanted to go in a helicopter to be honest, and after my plane experience, I didn't think I ever would. But I did it. And I loved it! Ryley was just amazed. He was speechless with excitement. Something that very rarely happens. (By speechless, I mean he didn't even do his usual excited noises. He just stretched his ar...

 As we are heading off on holidays tomorrow, this blog will exceedingly boring for a week. If I get the chance while I am away, I will post some pics. But for now it will be: