29/12/04 - (Russell again) Good news! As you may read down, we were looking to buy a house. And it happened! Of course, nothing went exactly as planned, however we have moved into our own house, we got our Stamp Duty concession, First Home Owners Grant, and just to top things off our tax returns for the last two financial years have (mostly) been completed and all the related funds which come with that have started to come through as well!
On Friday, 17th December Natasha and I went to Civic to have lunch (as we were both off work) and we got a phone call saying that the sale had settled. So, we walked over to the solicitors office and picked up the keys for our new house in Banks! As we had done a pre-settlement inspection the previous afternoon, Natasha had organised to have the carpets steam cleaned on the Saturday afternoon. As a result, we couldn't really move much into the new house unless we were going to put it on the floorboards.
As is so uncommon when you are moving, things went wrong. Firstly the company we had organised to steam clean the carpets "forgot", and we had to re-schedule with another company for the next day, so we lost another day of being able to move small items into the new house. Due to procrastination on our parts, we spent from 10:00am until about 11:30pm on Monday moving the larger items in a Rumbles rented truck, and we didn't finish moving everything out of the house until the afternoon of the 23rd, when we were supposed to have had the Greenway townhouse cleaned and emptied for inspection by 11:00am when it was to be inspected by the Property Management agent! Anyway, luckily enough Kate (the agent) was kind enough to put the inspection off for half an hour, and we ended up getting a 'clean bill of health'. So, we will be getting the bond back for our old house.
Christmas Eve was celebrated at our new house with Natasha's family, and boy was it an interesting time trying to get the house in some semblence of order before people arrived (we didn't quite make it, but it was close...) We are gearing up to celebrate New Year's Eve here with some family and friends, but it should be fairly quiet all the same.
Anyway, I think that's enough for now. We are planning on having our main computer workstation in one of the main living areas, so hopefully we will be able to keep these pages more up-to-date in the future.
12/11/04 - (Russell) Time for an update (finally). After a fairly busy year, with housework, looking after Curtis, working in the same positions, squash, gym time, travel, etc... I've finally been able to spend some time on the webpage. As you can see (below) I've done another quiz, this time on grammar!
On another note, we are looking to move! We have found a house that we like, and have started proceeding getting finance, legal advice, put a holding deposit down and also started considering where the heck we are going to put all our furniture and other possessions in the new house. With any luck, all will be completed very shortly, and we are looking to settle on the 10th December 2004. If that's the case, it's looking like Christmas at our new house this year! - followed by Christmas at Karen and Simon's new house as well!
Curtis is now three, and today I'm at home with him for the morning because he was throwing up last night. He's also started toilet training, and that's not made for good timing of him being sick. Natasha is currently on her way home at the moment, so she gets to look after him this afternoon.
We had a combined lunch for Curtis, Alicia, Sue Vega and Robyn last Sunday to celebrate their birthdays. It was most amusing seeing everyone getting presents and unwrapping them at the Hellenic Club. It was good to have Mum come down and visit for the weekend and allow us some time off from looking after Curtis. She is really happy that we are looking at a house with no stairs to climb, as she is starting to struggle a bit with her knee.
Anyway, that's about all I can think of at the moment, so I'll leave it there. Hopefully we'll be able to do some more frequent updates to the web page after we move - just depends on how much time we leave for ourselves. 24/05/04 - As you can see, we've been really busy. So busy, in fact, that we haven't touched
the web page in over a year! Actually, that isn't true, it's just that we have had other things to consider and a little
two-and-a-half year old who is running us around in circles. But hey, you get that.
Natasha is still working at the ACCC, but she has moved into the IT section to work on the Outsourcing contracts.
Russell is employed by BAE Systems, working in the Remote Sensing section of Geoscience Australia. The pay isn't the best,
but hey, it's work and he's getting money, and he's mostly enjoying himself.
04/05/03 - (Russell - Natasha isn't keeping up!) Hello again. We have had a fairly busy month, and a fair bit has gone on. We had Natasha's birthday, and had visitors for that weekend, then Easter and more visitors, then Anzac day, where we went down the coast. We stayed at a friends house and had a pretty good time. Curtis was really good, and we think that he got a bit out of the weekend. You get to the house by driving through Bermagui itself, going out on a road, and then you get to see this beach. It's around here.
The other major thing is, that I finished my course and will be graduating on 16th May! Finally! Now, the hard part, getting a job. It won't be totally easy, but I am quite confident that it wont be that long until I am back in the workforce. 04/03/03 - (Russell, again) The latest is that Centrelink decided to stop paying me. You would think that they would give
you all the information at the same time, but at the moment there is no news about the repayment, luckily. So, we are done to Natasha's income, plus
about $60 per fortnight in Family Allowance (or whatever they want to call it at the moment) and whatever I can get from consulting work. I'm currently
doing work on the ATO Windows XP Rollout (basically installing new computers for the ATO staff) but that will finish up this coming weekend. After that, I
don't have much to do.
Oh. One other thing I forgot to mention. *grin* I'm actually hosting my domain myself, which means a bit of outlay, but it also means I can make money by hosting other
peoples domains. Should get interesting!
25/01/03 - (Russell) Don't you just hate Government Departments? Centrelink made a decision in May last year to pay me Austudy. That was good, it meant that we could budget around what was happening there. So, for the next 9 months or so, we kept the Family Assistance Office informed of Natasha's pay changes, I asked questions of Centrelink about a Health Care Card (which I was told would be rejected, as Natasha
earns too much...) and we worked on having me finish my course. Then what happens? We are informed that I was supposed to be telling Centrelink, on a fortnightly basis, that Natasha was earning an income! Well, duh, we'd told them that she would be getting an income when I put my claim form in!
Anyway, Centrelink have decided to investigate my claim, and the information that we have is that they will reject the claim and will ask for the money that they have paid to me back. Only a paltry sum of (approximately) $4,500 to $5,500. Luckily, we can look at getting it reviewed, and drag things on a bit until I can actually look at getting work so that I can pay for things (let alone this debt that they have forced upon me!)
5/11/02 - Wow! I just looked at Curtis because he was annoying me while I was playing on the computer. And what do I see? He's cutting another tooth! This time, after he finally cut all his incisors, he's cutting a molar. Luckily enough he doesn't seem to be too worried about it, but we'll just have to keep an eye on him from now on.
Another thing we will need to keep an eye on is his incessant desire to pull anything out of, or off of, where we have put things. We had a box of tissues sitting on the sofa yesterday, and Natasha and I both left the room for about 2 minutes. When we got back we found the contents of the box strewn all over the floor! Just a little annoying...
Well, that's enough for now. As I'm on holidays, I'm doing a bit more stuff for myself at the moment, which is why I'm typing this up. Stay tuned! 1/11/02 - It's pretty hard to believe but Curtis will be 1 year old very soon. We're having a birthday party for him to be held at Natasha's mum's house on Saturday 9th November. Then on Sunday 10th, Natasha and Russell are going on holiday to Narooma for 3 nights, leaving Curtis with Natasha's mum. Russell hopes to finish his course in January sometime, but with doing some computer consultancy work for a client, is not finding as much time to study as he used to. As a result he's still only 170 hours ahead of schedule. His grade average is just over 95%. Curtis has had another middle ear infection with his left ear drum perforating (again!). He went onto antibiotics for a week, but it seems to be okay now. This ear infection came straight after a bout of 'rotavirus' which is like gastro, with vomiting and
diarrhea and no appetite for 3 days. We think he lost about 2 kilos. Natasha is still pretty busy at work, and very much looking forward to holidays. We'll be spending Christmas this year in Sydney and then going on Boxing Day to the movies to see The Two Towers with Cheryl & Troy, leaving all 4 kids (3 of theirs and 1 of ours) with their grandmother. We're not sure what we're doing for New Years, but no doubt it will be somewhat limited what with Curtis having to go to bed early. 14/08/02 - Thought we should update you all as to what's happening right now in our lives. Curtis has 6 teeth (top 4 and bottom 2) and it looks like he'll be getting more very shortly. He's also crawling really fast, and is pulling himself up on anything he can get his hands on... couches, coffee tables, legs, toys... anything! It probably won't be soon before he's walking. He loves his daycare and always has a big smile when we get out of the car in the mornings. We also had a visit with the ENT specialist yesterday because of the bad ear infection he had in May this year which
perforated both his eardrums. The doctor said that unless Curtis gets some more ear infections, that it's unlikely he'll have to get
grommets (that's a blessing!). Cheryl (Russell's sister) gave birth on 30 July 2002 to Kaitlyn Darcy van Tienhoven 6 weeks early. Kaitlyn is healthy, though she's still in hospital right now in the humidicrib most of the time. She was born weighing in at 2.2kg's (4.15 pounds) and is a tiny beautiful little girl. Stay tuned for some pics! Russell's going great guns in his course and is currently about 170 hours in front of the time frame he's meant to complete his modules and projects. He's also got an average of 95% which means he's well on the way to meeting his goal of getting his face on the wall of Spherion. To get your face on the wall, you need to have a positive course variance (Russell's is currently 170 hours) and you need to have an average of 92% or higher. Natasha is pretty happy where she is, though feels very busy at times, being a full-time working mum. Luckily Curtis is such an easy baby to look after (She's sure this is because of the daycare centre). 10/07/02 - Russell did an online quiz. The results are below. *grin* You are Rowlf! 12/11/2004 - Russell has done another online quiz. The results are below (and fairly accurate!) 9/07/02 - Natasha did an online quiz. The results are below.
You don't draw attention to yourself much, preferring to keep your cool and stay in the background.
You are the grammar Fuhrer. All bow to your
authority. You will crush all the inferior
people under the soles of your jackboots, and
any who question your motives will be
eliminated. Your punishment is being the bane
of every other person's existence, because
you're constantly contradicting stupidity.
Everyone will be gunning for you. Your dreams
of a master race of spellers and grammarians
frighten the masses. You must always watch your
back. If only your power could be used for good
instead of evil.
What is your grammar aptitude?
brought to you by Quizilla
 | You are Kermit! |
04/05/02 - No need to worry, but Russell, Curtis and Natasha got a free ride in a helicopter! The way we achieved this is we had a head on car accident on Brindabella Road just past Piccadilly Circus in the Brindabellas.
We are all okay, just with superficial injuries. Curtis only had a small graze on his chin and an abrasion from the seat belt strap along his neck. Russell most likely hit his head on the steering wheel as he grazed his eyelid, got a blood nose (and also grazed the bottom of his nose, but didn't break it!), and bit his tongue rather severely (but didn't bite it off, so that's a blessing!). Natasha was held back rather well by her seat belt so that resulted in a severe abrasion on the left side of her neck, bruising all along where the seat belt usually sits and a large black bruise on her right hip where she'd been keeping a child's car restraint bolt in her jeans pocket.
We don't know about Curtis (it's a little hard to ask), but Russell and Natasha are pretty sore all over (especially in the neck and shoulder areas!). Realistically though, we are blessed that it wasn't worse. We don't have any broken bones, we are all still healthy (if only a little worse for wear) and we may get a new (or different) car out of it.
We have some photo's scanned under the Family Pictures so you can take a look and see what damage occurred. The other car was a Kingswood station wagon and we know that the other driver was unlicensed and could have been drinking. Even so, we believe that no-one was to blame for the accident. It just occurred on a bad stretch of road.
01/05/02 - Russell started study! Due to the client of his employer being rather rude and (commercially) stupid, Russell was made redundant and found that study would be a good option. So, starting today he is studying Software development at Spherion Education. Hopefully he will get a good job at the end!
20/03/02 - Aaaarrgghhhhh!!!!!!! Curtis is teething!!!! He's only 4 1/2 months old and already he has to put up with this, poor boy!