April

April is over for another year, the month saw a few birthdays starting with Dawson's who turned 18 there was a party for Dawson on the day at his father's place around lunch time and yes I attended as did his Aunty Sandy and of course his nan & pop who are in many ways like his parents being that he lives with them and has done more or less since he was born.

Also in attendance was his mum and poppy Roberts, and Liz & Rob who are Leigh's parents, Leigh is my sister in-law she is married to my brother Dave who is of course Dawson's dad, all in all it was a good day. Tim didn't go with me as he had to work that day so I got a lift with mum & dad.

Also in the month were the birthdays of my niece Samantha and nephew Tyler who are brother and sister, their birthdays are a week apart. Sam is the eldest of my sisters children and Tyler is the youngest.

April also saw us celebrate Easter and later Anzac Day and of course there was two weeks of school holidays marking the end of term one of school.

Now we all pretty much know that in April I started to suffer from pain in my right hip, pain so bad that on two different occasions I had to ring a daughter to come and help me get to bed where I laid and cried to the pain subsided. I had an X-ray but don't the results till the 22^nd when we return from our cruise but I can tell you all that at the time of writing this I am in a lot better place pain wise.

Mum has been put on a waiting list for a hip replacement, the wait is around 10 months and at the moment she is in so much pain she is unable to stand or walk.

With the amount of pain I ended up in by the end of the month I had a new sense of admiration for my mum as I reckon she is in twice as much pain as I was and still she rarely complains, although dad at times feels she complains a lot.

Speaking of mum & dad, there are times dad wonders if mum will ever get better and be able to get around again and be able to do stuff as he is fed up and tired of waiting on her hand and foot every single day. Now don't get me wrong over all dad is great but like any normal person it gets to him at times and he sees how mum is at the moment just getting worse and worse and he wonders will she ever get better. Now mum also must at times wonder if she will ever get better and she can see she is getting worse and going downhill and at times it must get her down but she tries not to show it.

Michael has returned from Queensland and at this stage they have no plans to move there as they had problems with Sydney-May's father not wanting them to take his daughter to another state. Kathy has tried to work it out with him she has gone to a communication course, he didn't bother to show up they tried to contact him via phone call and email and snail mail and he didn't respond to anything. So that is a strike against him.

They are talking about finding a cheaper place to live, only time will tell if that happens as they are both unemployed at this stage and that makes it hard to find a rental place.

Michelle has been having Landon a lot more and has taken steps to get custody back of him, although she finds after 3 days he is doing her head in and she needs as break and he goes either back to Dave & Leigh or to mum & dad.

Mum has stressed to her that this time around things will be different as now Landon is part of our family and we want to continue to have him part of the family we want to see him and have him attend family functions and he loves being part of the family. Denni is his best friend and we refer to them as cousins now and mum & dad consider him their grandchild and of course he is now my nephew and I do not want to see that change.

Jessica is still working for the same company and has even been getting more weekend work which means Tim and I have Leo sometimes over a weekend while she is working which is ok with us we don't mind helping out when we can.

Heather and Paul moved again after years of living in Jewels they are now living in Belmont again somewhere near the high school I think.

Kelli and Jonathon are still living in Cessnock and Daemon for the most part I believe likes school, they have Blain each weekend from Friday to Sunday or Monday, at times Blain complains that he doesn't want to go to his dads place but generally I think once he is there he is ok. I told Natasha that many children are like that complaining they don't want to go but usually once there they are ok so not to read to much into his complaining and sometimes a child has to do things they don't want to do, that is just part of life.

March

Well here we are at the start of another month so that means the end of one month that month being March so what happened during March well mum has been well pretty much she did go see the specialist about her hip replacement and is now on the waiting list for that the wait will be around 9-12 months and she is still in a great deal of pain with the hip being bone on bone.

Tim talked me into going and asking about weight loss surgery I got a referral to a specialist in Gosford but when Tim rang up to see how much the appointment would cost he was told the first appointment is bulked bill but the operation would cost about $20,000 if we are not in a health fund.

So Tim has joined Bupa and we will have to wait 12 months to have the operation because he works for Comfort Delgrov he gets a discount on the health insurance and he has only covered me not himself and it still costs about $50 a week but he really wants me to have weight loss surgery and thinks it will be worthwhile.

I have increased my daily workout till an hour and half each day mostly of a morning before the day starts but have done an extra 10 minutes around lunch time as well, I am pleased with how much I am doing but have no idea how Tim feels as all he does is tell me I am fat and eat too much which really doesn't help.

Tim ordered and paid for our drinks packages for the cruise but even though I asked a couple of times to make sure the all inclusive package was in my name he still got it in his own name and he knows I am not happy about it. He got a soft drink package in my name.

My laptop packed it in at the start of the month it wouldn't boot up much to my annoyance, Kathy took it home for Michael to look at it but he hasn't done so, so I said if he can't or doesn't have the time or want to look at it fine just let me know so we can think about getting me a new computer. I have been using Tim's computer but miss having my own.