October 2011 - Halloween

Much as I like to let Halloween pass us by without trick or treating it is getting increasingly harder as the kids are older and know exactly what all their mates are doing on Halloween night! As our property is semi-rural and fairly remote we teamed up with the Camerons, Howes and Keeches to trick or treat in the local streets near school.

October 2011 - getting Dunc back home again

Here is my amazing husband home from hospital at last, celebrating his pathology being clear with the family. Notice he is celebrating with water due to the heavy duty antibiotics.

September 2011 - dogs & haircuts

Lulu is growing at a rate of knots. Here she is approx. 4.5 months old!

Same size as Pumpkin but not for long!

Couldn't resist a photo of Iona in this haircutting cape!!

September 2011 - Ducklings, possums & bizarre photos

It feels very strange to go from talking about Dunc having cancer to normal life back at the 'ranch' but that is how it is - life goes on and we had to maintain as normal an existence for the kids as possible. Dunc would end up being off work for several months following surgery so in that respect the kids were lucky to have more time with him than usual.

We put three fertilised duck eggs under one of our broody hens and she diligently sat on them and out hatched three gorgeous Pekin ducks. Hilarious to watch the three of them always waddling in a threesome and usually close behind the black hen who they were convinced was 'mum'!

Cheeky possums who have set up home in a cavity outside the playroom and bitten through wires so we've had to have all the electrics in that room cut off and made safe.

Some bizarre photos of the boys...

August 2011 - Our world turns upside down

I am going to cut a very long, important story short as Dunc's own blog explains his experience so much better than my words could even begin to. Dunc was scheduled to have a shoulder reconstruction mid August. He had the operation but the following day had two small lumps removed from his cheek to be tested. Four days later we were delivered the bombshell - Dunc had an extremely rare soft tissue cancer in his cheek called Dermatofibrosarcoma Protruberans. I will let the link to his amazing blog tell the rest....

https://todayisalovelyday.wordpress.com

The first entry of his blog is dated 25th September 2011 and is called "It started with a bump..."

The picture below shows Dunc with the gang the night before the 2nd operation. Little did we know at this stage that there would be massive, life changing surgery to follow.

Once we were told (after the 2nd operation) that Dunc needed huge surgery removing a large chunk of his cheek and rebuilding it from his forearm we knew we needed Granny and Grandpa here to help us get through. Fortunately we didn't have to ask - within 72 hours they were here and it meant so much to have them on hand to visit Dunc with me, visit him alone as his parents or stay at home with the kids so that I could make daily visits. It was a hugely worrying ten days with Dunc in intensive care for the first three of those. Dunc was incredible, the kids were amazing and Alison and Clive's presence made the difference between us being able to cope with what was happening to our family and not being able to cope.

The pictures below were taken the night before the HUGE operation. We were on a high, a mixture of fear and naivety I think. We had no idea what lay ahead.

August 2011 - Footy Grand Final

Arthur's U10 Forestville Ferret team won the Grand Final AGAIN this year. Very exciting.

August 2011 - Bold & Beautiful Winter Challenge

Laura and I decided to take the Bold & Beautiful Winter Badge Challenge which involved completing at least 20 winter swims from Manly to Shelley Beach and back (1.6 km). We kitted ourselves out in the Orca suits shown below and achieved our goal so are now proud wearers of the 'winter challenge' badge. Like being back in the brownies! The first time I tried my suit on at home Arthur made me feel even more nervous about sharks by saying "Mum it makes you look like a seal!" Great!