Deluge

Flood warnings were issued for several towns in the Riverina yesterday, including Cootamundra. It's rained fairly steadily since Sunday, and yesterday it bucketed down all day. We saw a photo of the creek across the bottom of our street yesterday and it was up to a metre but this is what I saw at 8am so it's not rising.

And the rain has eased a little today.

It wasn't as wet as we drove to Junee early this morning but the sheep didn't look too happy.

Got home in time to get Josh up, he didn't want to and I don't blame him, it was cold and miserable outside. But I made him breakfast and took him to school and walked in with him, (in the rain), to take his laptop charter to the office. All year 9 students in NSW get a laptop for their school work. He will get his next week. I don't recall that Emily's made any difference to her schoolwork, but by year 9 she wasn't going to school much anyway so that's probably no yardstick.

I went down to the supermarket, and heard on the radio that our bank's ATMs and Eftpos lines weren't working so I pulled up outside the bank first and got some cash (in the rain). Got Em some birthday stuff and got some groceries and by the time I got home I was damp and dishevelled. My hair looks like a cheap 80s perm no matter what I do to it, so I've decided not to do anything but wash it every day.

Last night the boys had some leftover chilli that was in the freezer, with multi grain tortillas and salad. I had my Pumpkin and Tomato soup and made a really nice vegetable curry which was also zero points. Emily even had some! After dinner we played ten pin bowling on the Wii and then the others continued on with some other games while I came in and got into bed and watched tv. I did 30 minutes yesterday on the Wii fit which was so much fun and I was sweating and puffing by the end of it so it definitely is a workout.

This has to be better than holing up in their rooms in front of a computer. Bowling was fun but Phill beat us as usual, I came a close second.

I came back this morning intending to do another workout on the Wii Fit but just before we left there was a funny chemical burning smell in the house and now the tv in the lounge room doesn't work. Luckily it's still under warranty and we're going to Wagga tomorrow. I'll get Emmy to set the Wii up in the tv room if she ever gets out of bed.

Tonight I'm doing Peppered Steak, another old, and simple, WW recipe. I'll have it on the food blog tonight.

So tomorrow my little girl turns 16. In a quiet moment today I remembered this day back in 1996. I was so sick of being pregnant and so anxious to meet our new little one and to find out if she was a he or a she. Emily was the baby who gave us back our family in a way, who made us feel "normal" again, after the harrowing months following Sarah's death, 18 months before. Little did we know the journey she would take us on, and the heartache, fear, and misery she would bring us. Would I change it all if I could? Believe me I have thought of this many times. And there were even more times I would have handed her over to anyone who would take her. But in the end she is my child, we brought her into this world and right or wrong, we need to see her through until she is equipped to be out on her own (hallelujah!) and this is what we will do to the best of our ability.

She has so many wonderful qualities and it's this fact that has been her saving grace. There are many imperfect children in the world, and many far from perfect parents. We are just a few of them.

Tomorrow is a milestone birthday for our girl, but it's also a celebration of the fact that we're all still here, and all still reasonably sane.

We will drive into Wagga tomorrow so I can go to my weigh in and meeting. I'm not sure what else we'll do but we'll probably have Subway (Em's favourite) for lunch and get some healthy party food and come home and celebrate. I think it will be sushi, fresh spring rolls with seafood, perhaps Russian Eggs (Em loves caviar) and other bits and pieces. I got a red velvet packet cake mix for her birthday cake, but I'm not sure how I'm going to decorate it.

I'm going to curl up on the bed and read for a while this afternoon, it was an early morning today and will be again tomorrow.