Update

Good morning from the beautiful Goldfields of Western Australia where the days are nice, but the mornings are still cold enough to light the fire. This could end up being a long post with lots of photos, so if it does, I apologize in advance.

Things have been very busy in our neck of the woods for the past month and a bit which is why none of you have heard from me at all. Bet you all thought I dropped off the perch or something. Nope. Still alive. In the past couple of months, I've edited 3 manuscripts for authors both in Australia and the US and created a couple of covers for authors in the US. I'll post the covers below.

Things have been happening around the house, too. We took down the 6x5 galvanized shed where hubby kept a lot of his machinery like a lawnmower and gardening equipment, mulcher (those in the US will call these woodchippers), and things like that. The shed was behind the wall in the pool area - and now that it's gone, the pool area has opened up. Taking down the shed took hours - so many bloody screws and bolts! I'll post a 'before' and 'after' pic.

Once that was down, a veggie garden was built in its place - photos of this are below. We have spring onion, celery, broccoli, broccolini, cauliflower, tomatoes, grapes (there are 7 different vines - all seedless because I can't stand crunching on a grape seed - they taste disgusting!), capsicum, leek, a few different types of lettuce (iceberg, rocket, etc), mint, and parsley - and the lettuce are about ready to pick after 5-6 weeks. And all of our fruit trees are loaded with fruit! Apricots, peaches, mandarins, oranges, and for the first year, apples and pears. The plum tree won't be ready for fruit for about another year yet because that one was just bought and planted a couple of weeks ago. Will be living on fruit for a couple of months. Can't wait!

I've been holding in a bit of a secret, too. I travelled to Perth to see my baby grandson for his 2nd birthday. I know - 2 already! My God, that time has gone quickly. And I stayed at my stepdaughter's house and spent some time with her family - our grandson, Christopher, has a gaming room all of his own - it's pretty impressive. A photo of Christopher in his room is below.

Because Laike doesn't see Grandma much, he didn't really want to come to me, but I expected that. Laike thought Grandma was intriguing - she brought a big bag full of presents ... yes, he investigated what was in the big bag. Grandma 'helped' him get them out of the bag to rip off the wrapping paper. At some point, everyone was called into the party room (they had the party at a place called Chipmunks - heaps of indoor play equipment) for food and photos. Hayley (DIL) wanted a 'group' photo, so everyone had to go and stand around and behind Laike - I was crouched down on one side of Laike, and our son, Kyle, was crouched down on the other side while everyone just cued up behind us. Hayley's friend took the photo - Laike knows when "say cheese" is said, it's time to smile for the camera. He's so darn cute. Anyway, Hayley's friend says - "I'll just take another in case the first one doesn't work. Everyone say .... Hayley's pregnant!" I think my "What?" was about the loudest in the room and my head spun around so quickly, I'm surprised it stayed on my shoulders! When she'd convinced everyone she wasn't joking and she was, in fact, pregnant, I burst into tears. I just couldn't help it! This post is going to be flooded with photos because I'm going to post some of Laike. He's growing so quickly. And I'm so excited to be a grandma again. Bubba is due mid-May 2023.

Now for an update on health issues. My back has gone again, and sciatica is back, so physiotherapy was arranged to see if that would help. Nope. I've had 2 sessions now and each time, I end up in agony - after the first one, it was for about a day (or a bit more). This time, it is now 3 days, and I'm still in effing agony. And, to top it all off, I've now been diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic, with high cholesterol and low vitamin D, so now I have to take an extra 3 tablets every day - one for diabetes to help keep sugar levels low, one to boost the vitamin D, and another to lower the cholesterol. Oh, well. These things are sent to try us.

I've also been (on and off) making more jewellery. I'll post some photos of those, too. Why not? It'll just give you all more to look at! I will get my ass into gear at some point and do some more writing. With everything that has been going on in our lives recently, I haven't been able to write at all. Those of you who are waiting for His Word...Depraved will be disappointed, I know, but I promise this is the one I will be working on when I get back into the writing groove.

Well, now that I've caught you up on what's been happening in our lives, why don't you all tell me things I've missed that have happened in yours?