Social butterflies!

The Jonkers were busy with a social life this weekend. Junior Jonkers have had a social life pretty much from day 1; Freya and Esther have school, play-dates, dance classes, gymnastics... Ade and I were slower off the mark, although my tea party with Mary-Mary but me ahead of Ade in the social stakes.
So Saturday night was Justine's leaving 'do', a water themed shin-dig at Barb's place (have enormous envy of anyone with alfresco capabilities), had a jolly nice time and F & E endeared themselves to M-M and her guest. A late night for us and the girls!

Esther & Mary-Mary play Littlest Pet Shops!

Bye Justine, I've known you long enough to appreciate how much I and TPH will miss you x

The girls did some indoor activities and recruited Barb's boys in their campaign for a Wii...

 

Esther the Siren captivates Carrie-Anne

Dessert by M-M, empty dishes all around :)

Sunday night saw the Jonkers entertaining at home, Jamie did Greece and I followed suit. Wish I'd taken some food fotos but we were too busy eating. For the record, LAFE, M-M and Tony, Dr Sarah and Nurse Lauren ate Greek salad and hummus (by Lou), Lamb cutlets (by Ade) and Gigantes Plaki and Simple Stuffed Veg (by Jamie O). Yummy!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RFDS

Did my first RFDS transfer the other night. We transferred a patient with chest pain (everyone with cardiac related chest pain gets a free flight out of TP). I had worked the early shift and so had a good idea that I was likely to get a call in; the call came at 7.30pm. The hospital was full of patients having anaphylactic reactions and RFDS were detouring to Pannawonica to pick up another chest-pain patient so our chest-pain-guy and me didn't leave TP until 1am!
Before I left Lufuno (night-nurse extraordinaire) briefed me on how pedantic RFDS flight nurses can be and suggested I know everything about my patient to avoid looking like an idiot during handover. I spent my first ambulance ride ever memorising the patient's medical history, ECG changes, vital signs and vital statistics. Hmm, needn't have worried, was met by the most delightful RFDS doc who had, of course, already had a detailed handover from one of our GPs and just asked the (very stable) patient how he was feeling.

Policy dictates that we (me and ambos) stay at the airport until the RFDS plane is airborne. We stood under a spotlight at the gate and I tried to ignore the entomologists fantasy that was occurring all around me (and up my trouser leg!!!). Got back to the hospital at about 3.15am and home soon after, a long day!

SJA

Despite his horrendously long working days (10 hours Mon-Fri, 6 hours Sat), Ade found the energy to attend his first St John's Ambulance training night yesterday. He always fancied himself as a life saver since his first anaesthetic tech shift where he resuscitated a newborn (my hero!) and he misses using his skills and knowledge.

The ambulance service (and the fire service) in Tom Price consists totally of volunteers and they seem to be a dedicated and professional bunch. Last night's training was 'Burn Management' which they were all up on since they brought a patient with facial burns into the hospital a couple of days ago (whom they handed over to yours truly), an excellent case-study! The evening was also a successful networking opportunity for Ade, watch this space...

This is Freya at gymnastics today, she was too quick for me to get a good photo!

Yesterday Freya and Esther both started classes with the 'Boom Boom Dance and Drama Academy' which they both lurved! At the end of the year they will be performing in a show (which I will lurve).

A moth that was on the wall of our carport when I got home, it is 8cm long!!!

I am on call this evening. There is a nurse on call for every shift in case an extra body is needed to accompany a patient being transferred to Paraburdoo airport for an RFDS flight out, or if the hospital gets bizzzy, or if a patient needs specialling. When I left today there was a patient in our resus room who is likely to need a transfer down to Perth and so I type this with my phone next to me. Ade is having a beer with a new buddy and so he is also on call (for parenting duties if I have to return to the hospital!).
A lovely little pressie for me at work today: a pot of lemongrass from Mary Mary, who is not at all contrary, but whose garden grows with all sorts of loveliness that I am envious of!

Tip-tastic

We've been at the tip again. It may seem as though we are at the tip at every opportunity, well it's true, we are! Inspired by Nad's $2 Myer dress (reduced from $129!!) I am on a mission to source stuff for nuffin'. Here's what Esther wore on our tip trip yesterday (it had been raining heavily and was v, v wet and muddy):

Needless to say she stayed in the car, here are some photos she took:

Me, fossicking

Debating whether the hostess trolley would make a good nesting box for our planned chooks, deciding "no" and going with the chest of drawers instead, a superior nesting environment we think!

 

 

Backyard plans are go despite it being wet (a lot) and Ade and I working every second of the day... The girls and I went to some garage sales on Saturday and scored some bargain plants and pots, on Sunday our kind and generous neighbour-colleagues gave us heaps more potted plants (and I have established that they are owners of a whipper-snipper, lawn-mower and trailer!!). Chooks are planned, although the design of their abode is dependant on what we can source at the tip.

Didn't we do well?! My 2 enormous pots were $5 each, chuffed with that!

It continues to be a very wet 'wet' in the Pilbara, TC Carlos threatens Port Hedland, Karratha and Onslow and TP reaps the stormy and precipitatious rewards. The girls dig the rain but are still  a bit wussy about the thunder!

On a rather more important note, the weather is having a bit of an impact on TP babies. Expectant mums usually head to Karratha or Port Hedland but this is currently not an option because of the approaching tropical cyclone(s) and associated road closures. Mums-to-be (including a heavily pregnant TP hospital nurse/midwife!) are having to alter plans and divert to Perth. King Eddies can expect a run of Pilbara parents while the wet continues.  We are also bracing ourselves at TP hospital,  I have dragged out and dusted off the midwifery texts...

STICK, found on the front door this morning :)

Pot pourri

Busy busy busy at Chez Jonker, so a brief update...
Freya the super student scored an honour certificate in the first assembly of the school year! "For the persistence and organisation you have shown in class. Freya, I love how you have started the school year. Keep up the super effort."

Ade and I are sooo proud :)
Esther has also been wildly impressive at school, check out her super cute drawing and writing...

I have to spend a day in the video conference room at work tomorrow endeavouring to stay awake for the duration of the WACHS Pilbara mandatory clinical skills induction day (snore). I will have a bed-fellow for the day and her name is Mary, she will make the day bearable and has planned afternoon tea at her place to celebrate our completion of this tedium. My contribution will be peanut biscuits which I made this evening.

1 egg, 1 cup crunchy peanut butter, 1 cup soft brown sugar, mix, put in oven for 20 mins, YUM.
Our seedlings are growing!

It was 39 degrees in Perth yesterday and 23 degrees in TP, what's with that??!!

Byblos

The Phoenician city of Gebal was named Byblos by the Greeks, because it was through Gebal that papyrus (bublos; Egyptian papyrus) was imported into Greece. Hence the English word Bible is derived from byblos as "the (papyrus) book." The present day city is now known by the Arabic name Jubayl or Jbeil. Byblos or Gebal is located on the Mediterranean coast of present-day Lebanon.
Ah Wiki, you are so smart.
Ade is now employed by Byblos Construction Pty. He started work yesterday as a TA (trades assistant). Byblos does housing construction and renovation in town and has contracts on the mine too so Ade will be assisting a whole heap of tradies. He works 5.5 days a week, 10 hours a day and his hourly rate is more than mine (he is quietly smug about this). He now has some mega masculine work boots and our washing line looks like every other in TP, which along with his new "bread-winner" status has seen a spike in testosterone levels at 3 Ingerup Place.

Working man's washing line! This also gives y'all an idea of how enormous and awful our back garden is, we have a fair amount of work ahead if we ever want to invite pals around for a BBQ!

And so the school run/child care/after-school activities juggle begins...
This morning Freya signed up for gymnastics on Thursdays, sadly there is no class for Esther's age group so I put her name down for Netta (beginners Netball!), this will be Mondays next term. Freya is auditioning this week for a school production of Wind in the Willows- the musical, rehearsals Tuesdays. Both girls will hopefully start swimming lessons on Wednesdays. We also drove out to the Pony Club to see about riding lessons, there was no one to be found but I now have an email address and have promised F that I will investigate further. Esther has a pal whose mum is a horse owner, she is my plan B!
So you can see that with both of us working full time we will have to be very creative (and persuasive) in organising various drop offs and pick ups. Rather depressingly, night shifts for yours truly are an attractive prospect in managing this juggle :(
F & E baked up a storm this afternoon, bread rolls and cupcakes (we are a carb-friendly family!)

Bread rolls with CHEESE

Mmm, sugary loveliness

Buggin'

Tonight is the last of my current batch of night shifts. They have been, largely, uneventful. Early this morning I saw a little boy with abdominal pain, his father was concerned it was appendicitis, it turned out to be a poo!
I have been amazed by the creatures of the night; round about midnight the ugly bugs' ball begins and the nurses' station (or any place in the hospital where a light is on) becomes a mecca for multi-limbed critters. Of course last night when I took my camera with me there was not the variety but I papped a couple of cute insects:

This is a stink bug, beautiful looking but he only needs a brief flick and he emits the smell of rotting socks. DO NOT SQUASH!

I call these 'brainless beetles' because they refuse to learn and accept that they can't climb vertically. There are long lines of them down the corridor all endeavouring to scale the walls.

Perhaps attracted by the smorgasbord, frogs bounce down the corridors in the early hours. They are very sweet, little chameleon-style frogs, the girls have also found and played with them in the pool.

More sinister at the moment are the march flies, little flies with a big bite. Apparently there were no march flies last year because there was no rain in the wet season but this year the big rains have brought a big problem. The bites are painful and itchy, some become cellulitic and require antibiotics, others are subdued with antihistamine; unfortunately there have been a couple of anaphylactic reactions (where swelling compromises the patient's airways), so its not just the snakes that we have to worry about!!

w/e

A promising start to the weekend: great play by the pool, girls modelling their new bathers courtesy of Grandma and G. Esther's friend Chris was there with his brother and the kids all had a play.

That evening I got a call from work to see if I could work the night shift...I was on call so it would have been ungracious of me to say "no". My first night shift was largely uneventful, although a patient coming in from one of the mines was delayed when the ambulance he was in hit a cow (both the ambulance and the cow were written off). So 1 patient became 3 since the ambos needed checking out too!

Project 'cut and paste' completed while I napped on Saturday, F & E did an excellent job of fancying up a very ugly magazine holder didn't they?
Our Sunday has been very creative too. This morning we planted seeds.

My improvised dibber

Parsley, basil, capsicum, chilli, lettuce, tomatoes and sunflowers, planted in pots wombled from a garage sale yesterday. Not a huge selection of seeds available in tp though we have strawberries yet to plant, will have to search online.

The afternoon starts with some 'family dancing', Freya's idea; naturally Ade did not take part. The afternoon ends with me having a snooze in preparation for more nights, Ade roasting pork and the girls watching 'Addams Family Values' for the x-teenth time.

Small town...small flippin' world!

So it turns out that Mrs Shepherd, the Teacher's Assistant in Esther's class and the mother of a little girl in Freya's class, was taught flute by Ade's dad (!).

Central

Yesterday the girls started the school year at Tom Price Primary, AKA 'Central' as opposed to 'North'. We live in North Tom Price i.e. north of the rail line that bisects the town, and just down the road from North Tom Price Primary School, but decided to enrol the girls in 'Central' because it is so near the hospital and will make drop off and pick up easier for us when we are both working (and the uniforms are better!).

Both opted to sport a "side pony" for day 1.

Esther, the big pre-primary girl, is in Mrs Astbury's class and has immediately settled; she invited a new friend, Hayley, over for a playdate after school today and they had a lovely time. Freya is in Mrs (Frejya!) Lucas's class and she is right at home too. Freya had already bonded with Imogen, whose mum and Nanny both work at the hospital; F and I are both year 3 girls but in different classes, they have arranged meet up in the school rain forest at lunchtime each day! Freya is one of 3 new kids in her class and today the newbies had to miss their music lesson to have their spelling assessed (!). Freya was asked to spell "citizenship", my suspicions are that this was a little tricky even for a junior superbrain like our firstborn!

Esther, very pleased with herself, in her new classroom.

I have already signed up for 'reading' in Freya's class next week and the pre-primary parent roster goes up tomorrow so we'll both add our names to that. So pleased (and relieved) that both girls are happy and making friends at school :)