So, it looks like my blogging is becoming haphazard and barely regular, but so it goes! The kids are getting older, and they just don't love spending that much time with us oldies. Life is chugging along, not much change. Carmie is still up and down sick, but has good days as well as bad. She's been going to her D&D, and only missed one Saturday session. Arley has made friends with Luca again, and we have had lots of visits from the four neighbourhood kids. Arley loves it when they come over, and Jeff and I grin and bear it. It's the noise factor that's really bad, and no matter what we say, five kids playing Xbox together is going to be loud. We even bought a good bluetooth stereo for our bedroom so we can block out the noise!
The kids are still doing all of their therapies, and Jeff and I have also started seeing Arley's psychologist together (without Arley) so we can work on helping him as a united front. His psych is really good and we are finding him really helpful. Carmie is still going rock climbing with Clint, and has been kicking butt at physio. She is still a crooked lanky noodle, but I think she is getting stronger.
We are thinking of moving closer to the beach next year, or better still, moving to the beach. We bought an electric scooter for me to ride around with Jeff, as I am not as confident in my electric unicycle skills as I could be. Carmie has taken a liking to the new scooter, so we are hopeful that when we move, she will get out of the house more often. Our lease isn't up until March, and then we will go on month to month, so it is a ways off, however it is fun to plan and dream!
Jeff's guitar school is going well. Where we want to move to is right around the corner from it, so he could unicycle to work and we wouldn't need two cars. Jeff now has three students who like it so much they have signed up for twice weekly lessons. He is happy with how things are growing - it's a good pace, not overwhelming and not stagnant.
I've been painting a fair bit. I finished the painting for my brother and his girlfriend, and I've painted a large balloon painting and a small landscape, but am a little stuck on which direction to go in. All in good time.
We have doctor's appointments coming up for Carmie, as we are still trying to figure out the cause of her nausea. She has a barium swallow study to do on Sept 5th which will hopefully gives us a clue as to what is going on. It sucks to see her so sickly some days.
Jeff and I even got out of the house for a date night. It feels very strange to leave the kids alone at night, but that's what we did. We had dinner out at a Thai restaurant and then went to see the Australian Rock Collective do a cover of Pink Floyd. It was a really good night. Freedom!
Our poor old Bella is getting so old. She will be 16 in a few weeks. We asked Chat GPT how long her lifespan should be given her crossbreed, and it said 8-12 years, or 7-14 at a stretch. So, she's doing really well, and she still runs around like a nutter a few times a day. She is mostly deaf, and I think she doesn't have much peripheral vision. Because of this, I think her anxiety is high, and she spends her days, when she isn't sleeping, getting in my way. She is always underfoot, or right behind me, sometimes pressing against me, but sometimes I have no idea and the amount of times I trip over her in a day is ridiculous. I have started taking photos of her 'helping' me throughout the day. I have a lot more, but you get the gist of it!
