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Parkos update 1
Firstly we are loving the country!! Loving having our own home to do things with and loving having our own Church that we can start to mould and grow.
Andrew :- is doing scripture in 3 local schools now, Blayney, Errowanbang & Millthorpe and is enjoying getting back into the schools. He has also started arranging Youth activities and this term they are joining with the local AOG church a few times, heading down to Lithgow Bap's for their evening cafe church and a few nights up at Martha St (the church property). We had a Church family picnic last Sunday (Australian MOTOGP at Philip Island was on so it was not a long one) which was well attended and a nice way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon. He is meeting with the elders once a week and is really valuing these Men and their hearts for the church and the community, he always comes home really blessed. He is getting a lot more opportunities to ride the Ducati which is great as 3 minutes from our front door he is in 3 different 100km zones and out on the highways.
Caitlyn :- Survived her 1st Term at Millthorpe and is now into her last term off Kindergarten. Other than some slight nerves on her first day she loves her new school and her teacher Mr Morgan. She has made friends in her class however I think it will be a very long time before she has any close friends like she did at Windsor, but that was because she grew up and Tahlia, Brianna and Hayley, where here she is the new kid. She has not started up Gymnastics again and we are not sure if she will, she would like to have piano lessons however we have been told that at the moment her fingers are still too small so we will see. She has grown up so much and is doing really well in her reading and learning. Millthorpe PS have paid for students to have unlimited access to "Mathletics" an online maths program and she loves to get on there and earn herself Awards that are presented at school assemblies. She has received a merit award for class contribution and 2 home reading awards. The entire school holidays every day she would ask how many days till I go back to school, she just thrives on learning and loves it. She also lost her 2 bottom teeth during the holidays so had something cool to tell for news when she got back to school.
Philippa :- has grown up so much since the move, she was not exactly happy about the new house/church/life and for the first few weeks spent every day asking to go back to here real home. But all is good now, she has adjusted to sleeping in her own room with out Caitlyn, but now visits us on a nightly basis sometimes more than once. She is enrolled in Preschool for next year and will be going Tuesdays with the 3yr olds and Thursdays with the 4 - 5yr olds which I'm hoping will extend her a little. She is very intelligent and somedays craves extra stimulation and having grown up with a big sister she loves playing with older kids. Her eyes recovered from the operation back in June fabulously and are now perfectly straight, however he vision has gone backwards so we are back to drops and patching till we see Dr Rowe again in mid November. She got her first big girl bike for her birthday and powers on it, as she has longer legs than Caitie she has been able to reach the peddles and has the strength to push them.
Both girls are loving having a toy room where they can play when they want and also a backyard where they can play on the swings or trampoline or ride their bikes in the driveway. They have spent more time out there playing in the 3 months we have been here, than the entire time they were at Windsor. They both also love playing with the dogs and the dogs love the attention most times.
Me:- I'm really enjoying the slowness of life here, there is no more racing from here to there, we get back from school and the girls head straight outside and it is just lovely to not have to rush. I have been trying to get to the gym as much as possible to kick start my weightloss again as I would really love to loose atleast another 10 - 15kg, but it is so much harder when you don't have the constant accountability that doing 'Super Shape Me' with the girls did and the incidental excerise of walking every morning with Merrillie and Lauriann after dropping the girl at school. I have made a good friend in Alison the church secretary which is nice, we have been doing canteen together twice a term and see each other every afternoon when picking up the kids. Her youngest is in Caitie's class. I have been really busy with Lizzie & John's wedding which is less than a month away now, so I have done lots of trips back down to Windsor for catch ups, dress fittings, kitchen teas, I will be back down on the 31st for the Hen's night and then I will be picking Caitie up from school on the 11th Nov and heading back down till Sunday 15th Nov. I'm hoping to get to church that Sunday to see everyone before Christmas. The local AOG ministers wife arranged a 'Welcome to Blayney Jo' morning tea for me last week which was lovely and a chance to meet some people from the other churches. I also had a 'Meet Me on Queen' (our house is on Queen St) Ladies coffee and dessert night back in Sept and it was really great, we had 19 ladies come and they all enjoyed themselves which is always good. I have also orgainsed a Ladies Christmas Dinner for the 28th Nov which everyone is excited about, now I just need to arrange it, should look at doing that this coming week, I'm just trying to get all the Hen's stuff done and Andrew is off to his renewal retreat the day I get back from the hens for a week.
Well that is kind of it for now, its late and Andrew is home so I will sign off. I will try and upload some photos to this tomorrow.
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Parkinson Family
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The evils of facebook
Its not my fault, its facebooks, since I have been on facebook this blog has be neglected.
I have come to the conclusion that I need to set aside an actual time every week to sit down and update this blog other wise it will never happen.
I'm thinking Thursday nights is a good option as Andrew is at Bible Study and other then watching the shows I'm recording there is really not much on TV.
So this is my plan. Thursday nights is blogger night :)
Better get to it.
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Parkinson Family
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I Know I Know!!!! but a lot has been happening!
1stly SORRY for the lack of blogging since Christmas 2008.
We have had a lot of things happening.....
The year started with us deciding to accept a Call to Blayney Community Baptist Church and it was a process of telling our close friends and then in February the Church.
Caitlyn started school on her 5th Birthday and has loved every day since, she is home from school today as she has the flu and she cried cause she wanted to go!!!
Pip is even growing and is booked in to have her eyes operated on this coming Monday 1st June. She is going to take after Andrew, any chance she get she is on stage with the microphone and loves playing guitar on the coffee table.
We are very excited about the move and we are currently in the "Cooling Off" Period of the purchase of our 1st house, it is due to settle on Friday 26th June, with our final Sunday at Windsor 28th June. We will spend the rest of the following week moving and cleaning and will be in Blayney as of the 4th July.
The house is a 3 bedroom with 2 family areas, ensuite with corner spa, enclosed verandah and family room at the back, double carport, double garage, shed and granny flat so if you want to come and visit the country there is somewhere to stay, All on a 912sq block.
It is going to be a long and difficult process, very emotional, I will be finally leaving home after being here for 10 years married and 22 years at Windsor Baps. It is going to hurt to leave but it is going to be great for Andrew to be able to prove to himself that he can do it on his own. It will also be great to be know and Jo Parkinson, Andrew's wife and not the ratty teenager that use to run a muck, which Im sure some people still see.
I am in the midst of packing at this point however will endeavor to keep you up to date with the coming months events.
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Parkinson Family
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Philippa does boo
We were playing with the Mac and entertaining Pip while waiting for Caitie to finish Gymnastics. As you can see she thought he was very funny!!!
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Parkinson Family
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SEAWORLD
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It was a slightly overcast day and as we were waiting for the Dolphin Show it did shower for about 5 minutes, other than that it was a nice temperature.
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We started with the Sesame Street Beach Show, which was really good, the girls loved it even if Caitlyn did tell me that they were not real and that they were costumes with people inside!!!!
Grover was so funny, he played up the whole time and then he was the last to leave the stage and kept doing the bum dance to a rather large angry looking bikie one row down from us.
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Next was the Dolphin Show. It was unreal, I don't think you can see this show too many times..JPG)
Then it was time to play on the rides and in the water play area while Andrew and I had lunch.
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Then we headed underground/sea and I got to play with the features of the new camera. It has the 'Behind Glass' setting to allow for these fantastic shots.
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This is playing with the macro setting underwater - Starfish
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The highlight of the day was meeting and having a photo with Elmo and Grover!
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Parkinson Family
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Biggera Waters (work in process)
We did lots of fun things, Putt Putt Golf, Swimming, Jumping Pillow, Bike Rides, Visits to parks and the shops, Andrew's Dad & Corrine came for lunch once and Dave, Dee and Teghan come for lunch and a swim twice. The highlight was are visit to Seaworld, we visit one theme park a year and this year it was great. Seseme Street Beach was sensational. The girls had the biggest and best day it was great..JPG)
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Parkinson Family
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Sunny QLD
We arrived at Treasure Island about 11am as we gained an hour by crossing the border. We got on our site, which for the bit extra money was sensational so much room and started setting up. The girls were really good in helping and by 1pm we had roof, walls, verandah and beds done. It was time for some lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon fiddling to get everything right (for anyone who caravans would know this is process that takes about 3 days)
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We had dinner and as it was still hot and muggy we decided to go for a swim. This is where the fun began!!! While Andrew was on the phone I got the girls ready and when Andrew got off he got ready too and we headed out. I took my keys out of the door making sure it was not locked, threw them on the floor and closed the door BIG mistake as the door locked itself and both keys were inside the van..... We tried everything to get back in and nothing worked, so we had to rip the flyscreen on the small window that was opened into the van and then feed Caitlyn trough the window and onto the lounge for her to pick the keys up off the floor and hand them to us, it was lucky that I just dropped the keys rather than hanging them up as there would have been no way she could have reached them. Anyway while we are doing this Philippa announces that she has done Poo's!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH
Once the van was sorted, Caitie was back out and Pip was cleaned up we headed to the pool and had a great time.
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Parkinson Family
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On the road - Tenterfield
We left Tamworth about 8am and headed to Tenterfield where we spent the night. Interesting town, the park we were booked into had no one at the office and no one answered the page so we left and found another equally doggy park. After setting up it was time to sit back and watch Phillip Island 2008 MotoGP, God was good as the only channels we could get were ABC, SBS and TEN and the race was on TEN.
After the race we went down to the park and had a couple of hours of fun before it was time for dinner showers and bed.
Next stop QLD!!!!
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Parkinson Family
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A True Bush Wedding
Well we headed off to Tamworth on Friday 3rd with a rather uneventful trip arriving about 2pm. We were staying in a park that was right on the river just on the outskirts of the main shopping area. Andrew was very proud of himself and rightly so as we had a site that was in the middle of the row, (so with a van and car on either side) and a tree at the front of our site and Andrew hooked the van around and got it perfectly on the site, completely straight in 1 attempt!!!! for anyone that has tried to reverse a trailer would appreciate the significance of this feat. It has only taken 10 years for us to get to this point, but it just shows it can be done. you should have seen us , or more importantly heard us when we first started towing the van it would take 10 attempts just to hook up let alone get the thing straight and level on a site! We spent a night afternoon just hanging around town and then dinner at the Tudor and off to bed.
Saturday was a beautiful day, we spent the morning riding bikes and relaxing until it was time to get ready and head out to the property 30 minutes out of town. We you arrived you had to follow the white flags....... lucky we had the 4wd it was like mountain climbing as you weaved you way form the road up to the top of the property that opened out at this plateau with
a gorgeous bush church.
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Everything went beautifully, Kristy looked simply elegant and Nick was very excited. The clouds were starting to form as we hung around chatting and as we were 2 minutes out of Tamworth the heavens opened and it did not stop till morning. They were just taking there final photos when it stated which was lucky.
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The reception was my part which I was extremely nervous about. I pulled it off in the end and I have not had any complaints so thats good, but I will never do it again public speaking is so not me.
It was a great day and we all slept really well that night.
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