A Tribute to My Dad - 1926 - 1998

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dad was born on the 19 July 1926 (Beth correct me if I’m wrong) as the 2nd of three boys.  Dad was the boy who you’d find standing in the middle of the road pretending to be a cop and directing the traffic.  He was the one you’d find in the crowded down-town area looking at the sky then when everyone else looked up he’d “melt” into the crowd.  He was the one who tricked his dad into buying him a German Shepherd puppy when dad had said “No” to an Alsatian! 

Dad was always the optimist.  The cup was always half full.  If it was cold and wet it was a good time to stoke up the fire and make the room so hot the rest of us had to leave the room.  We’d try and sneak the door open, but he’d always notice and tell us to shut the door as it was too drafty!  So we’d dutifully shut it and either leave or cook!  Dad would never buy a house that didn’t have a fire in it with a wet back so we could save on our winter water heating bill.

Dad was always up for an adventure.  Every year we’d go for our Christmas holiday, usually 2 weeks away.  These were my favourite time of the year.  We got to have Dad 24/7 and he was always up for a game.  One year he bought a runabout with a small outboard motor on the back especially for the holiday.  We’d go out in the boat fishing or just exploring all day. 

I remember waiting till Dad got off the phone (he worked for the church – long story that I’ll not go into here) usually around 9pm for him to come outside and play hide and seek with me!  He didn’t seem to care that it was late and the neighbours may be sleeping, he’d still yell, “Arrrrggggghhh!” as he ran for home after I found him.  He was usually easy to find because he’d be wearing his white shirt and sometimes his tie as well!

Dad was never too busy or too sick to help somebody else.  Even if he had spent all day in bed with a cold/flu if he got a call to lead worship or preach that night he’d get up, get dressed and go!  It did bug me a bit though as I’d have been begging him all day to play with me and he’d have said he was too sick!

Another memory I have is when he had to go into hospital for a hernia operation.  Because of his belief system that he could not get so sick he needed treatment, he didn’t tell us (or me anyway) why he was going in!  A day after his op when we went to pick him up, the nurses had given him what they called “Fairy Mixture” which not only relieved his pain but put him on a high!  He did not need a wheelchair to get out to the car and he certainly did not need anyone to carry his bags!  He did pay for it though for the next few days when he was so sore he kept telling me to stop making him laugh!!

In his latter years, after waiting most of his life, he got the opportunity to go overseas to work as a missionary!  He’d wanted to go to Japan when I was about 4 years old but the church we were part of at the time did not want him to do that.  He even bought a book called “Japanese in 30 days” so he could have a basic understanding of the language.  He never did go to Japan, instead he and mum went to PNG where Dad taught at a Bible School.

My wedding – August 1995 (6 weeks after mum had passed away)

Mum passed away in 1995 and Dad remarried in March the following year.  A little earlier he was diagnosed with cancer.  He went through Chemo which slowed it down a bit but made him sick.  When I was in hospital in Nov 1996 waiting for our first child to be born, Dad was in another hospital across town.  He’d ring me from his hospital bed and we’d compare the food menu, his was always better than mine!  He got out of hospital in time to come visit me and meet his granddaughter. 

I was with him in December 1998 when he was told how long he had before cancer took over.  I asked him how he felt about it, he replied, “Me feel?”

He was in hospital on New Years Day, he told every nurse that came into his room, “This year I’m going to Glory!”  He was not afraid to die, he was confident he knew where he was going. 

A few days before he died, he called us all into his room as he wanted to celebrate communion for the last time on earth.  He hadn’t talked much for a day or two as he slipped in and out of consciousness, but after communion he started to sing in his normal LOUD voice!  I’d love to be able to remember the song he sung so if any family remember please leave a comment for me.

He also talked to each of us children (actually we were adults!) individually as he wanted to make sure there was nothing between us and him before he died. 

That was just over 15 years ago … while pregnant with Jessica who is very much like her grandpa!

Miss you DAD!

Dad and I on a Christmas holiday in 1969

Light at the end of the tunnel

Sometimes the tunnel can be extremely long but there is always a light at the end.

This lifestyle of travel is an interesting one; you get time to think!  Thinking can be dangerous! 

Roll back the calendar about 2 years … we’d recently lost a very precious and much wanted baby daughter, Serenity.  As a family we were reeling with the shock.  Grief affects everyone differently.  Some of us just wanted to be depressed; some of us wanted to do something different; some of us just wanted our old life back! 

One day, while camping in Goomeri, Jasmine and I went to buy some food and noticed a sign on the shop window about a festival coming up and that they were looking for entertainers.  I knew Jasmine wanted to perform, but was not sure that the timing was right!  We sent off an email anyway and when they emailed back they festival was keen to have us!  So the Superdog Trick Show now had it’s first public performance!

Preparing for this performance gave us all a much needed focus and the show went well and was a success.

After this there was not much to look forward to, and not knowing how to get any more performances we drifted.   We picked up one or two shows the following year, but is was very slow going with not much positive response to our emails. 

This year, we decided to push things along a bit by emailing some different agricultural shows. We decided to focus on the smaller, inland country shows and hey presto! we had success! 

At the show in Winton, QLD we met another performer (Roy Maloy) who has been in the entertainment industry for many years.  He gave us a few pointers and most of all believed in us!  It is amazing how having someone who believes that what you are doing is actually ok, can boost the confidence of the whole family. 

We now have a fresh focus, a fresh determination to be the best Dog Trick Show you will ever see.  The girls (who are the trainers) have been inspired with confidence that what they are doing is worth it.  That they can and have performed well and that the audience loves it!

So the light at the end of the tunnel just got brighter!

Mt Isa Show

What an epic weekend!  Our tent is very quiet tonight; after two day’s of performing three shows a day everyone is beat! It is a healthy tired after spending most of the day outside in the sun doing lots of walking, running and talking.

We had the privilege of once again working alongside Australian Circus King – Roy Maloy.  Roy holds six world records in circus including walking on stilts 76ft high and also laying on a bed of nails and having a 1/2 ton block of ice lowered on him with a forklift, then smashed with sledge hammers! 

We first met Roy at the Winton Show where Chana assisted in one of his performances; this time Jessica got her moment of fame!

In appreciation for her help, Roy made her a balloon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!

 

 

 

 

 

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The girls and their dogs did some awesome shows!  Everyone we spoke to loved it even those who were not “dog people” said it was very entertaining and great to watch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And our crowd ….

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Superdog Trick Show Again!

Life has been so busy that this blog has had to take a back seat!   Last time I updated here we’d not long sold the bus and bought the Hiace Van!  Now that was way to long ago!  We still have the van and the tents.  Are we enjoying it?  Well, some days we do and some days we don’t, just like the bus!  It is often harder to find a place to set up as we now need grass so if we cannot find a place to set up we have to sleep all 9 of us and the dogs in the van!  We have done it a few times, but it’s not the best nights sleep.  The kids sleep well, but us adults are not as flexible as we once were and a night in a squishy seat takes it’s toll! <insert creaky sounds>   When we do find a place to set up it’s usually a place we can stay for a few days.  Setting up and packing down every day is not my idea of fun! 

This is us camping at the Winton Showgrounds where we performed with the dogs. 

Speaking of the dog shows … don’t forget to check out the Superdogs facebook page and give it a “like”.  They are doing really well and getting lots of positive comments from all who see them performing or practicing.  At the Winton Show even the other entertainers took time out to watch them saying they’d never seen anything like it before!  Another stall holder told us that everyone he spoke to was either coming in to see the dogs or leaving talking about them! 

This is the first performance at the Winton Show, by the last time we had a much bigger crowd! Exciting stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was going to put a video on here, but seeing as I’m writing this outside reception area it’ll have to wait. Or check out the Superdog Website which has links to all the videos.

Not sure when I’ll get to update here again, but we regularly put updates and photos on our facebook page so if you haven’t “liked” it yet, we’d love to have you join us.

I’ll leave you with a bit of humour to brighten your day.

Why the Change

Several people have asked us why the change?  Why did we go from an all under one roof 38 foot ex school bus to a Hiace commuter and tents.  Well, here’s the blog post where I endeavour to answer those questions!

Let me go back 4 years when we bought the bus … we’d done 1 year in a Jayco Eagle towed by an 8 seater Falcon station wagon!  When we got pregnant with Jireh, it was time to upgrade our rig to something we’d all fit in to travel.  At the time a bus seemed the best option.  Michael got his MR license, bought the bus and moved into it all in the same week! 

Fast forward 1 year, we’d had enough of the bus!  We found it restrictive on where we could go, it was costly to keep on the road and Michael did not like driving it!  We put it up for sale at that time with no interest at all! Over the past three years we’ve periodically advertised it with varying interest.

Our decision to change rigs was not a sudden one!  We’ve talked about it for years and made lists of the pro’s and con’s of different types of rig.  Each time the decision was the bus had to go!

Another reason we decided to change was to facilitate our oldest daughter with getting her drivers license.  As she approached her 16th birthday late last year we knew the time had come that The Auroara needed to sell!  So with renewed effort we advertised her again.  We had a lot of interest while we were based in Newcastle, but nothing came to fruition.

We’d almost resigned ourselves to the fact that it would never sell unless we dropped the price ridiculously low!  We talked about it and decided that the price we had it at was the lowest we were willing to advertise her for.  Then the now new owner came, looked and willingly gave us the price we had asked for!

So recapping on our reasons for the change:

1.  We didn’t like driving it

2.  The cost of driving it

3.  We want to explore different, not bus friendly places

4.  We want to facilitate our oldest daughter to get her drivers license

If you have any other questions we are happy to answer them.

Change

I asked a question of Facebook recently “Change is good, right?”  Most people said it was and that one could not move forward without it.  One person said that if it was change for changing sake then it was not good.

On Monday, 4 March 2013 a guy rang up asking if we still had our bus for sale and could he come and look at it please.  A couple of hours later, he’d looked at the bus, told us he’d buy it and given us a $500 deposit! We’ve had the bus advertised off and on for about 3 years, had a lot of tyre kickers, a few fraudsters and then finally 1 genuine buyer!  It took us all by surprise!

The bus (The Auroara) has been home for four years.  Jireh was bought home from the hospital to the bus.  Serenity was born in the bus … so there were many memories.  When it hit home that she was really sold, it was a bit emotional for us all!  There wasn’t much time to dwell on it though as we now had to source another vehicle!

We’d been looking on Gumtree and Ebay consistently and knew of one that sounded like a go, but it was in Newcastle (we were in Carcoar Dam).  We phoned about it and found out it was gone!  Now what?  The new owner wanted to take possession of The Auroara as soon as possible.  No pressure at all!!

We spent the rest of the day scouring the internet and found a couple that sounded sort of interesting.  I emailed them both and next morning heard back from one of them (still waiting to hear back from the other one!). We phoned him up, made a time to view it, packed up the bus and left.    We arrived in the small town of Bowning, NSW a bit later than we’d expected, had a quick look at the van and decided we’d wait till morning to test drive it.

Morning came and everyone was up early excited to be test driving a car!  It drove nicely, looked ok on the outside and inside so we put a deposit on it! 

The next couple of days were spent sorting out the “stuff” in the bus and dealing with the RTA!

On Friday at about 1pm we met up with the guy who’d put the deposit on the Auroara to do the change over.  His wife said to him, “Do you realise you are buying these children’s home?”  Was sad yet exciting to see her drive away.

With mixed emotions we watch what had been our home for 4 years drive away without us!

Our new van the “Puddle Jumper”, was waiting across the road.  When all the formalities were over, the kids all piled in, we drove across the road and collected out stuff that we’d left under a tree!

Adrenalin was running high as we drove off to start the next chapter in the life of Wheel Education.

 

 

 

 

 

Quick Catch Up

Time has gotten away on me and I haven’t updated here in ages!  Sorry!

 

We had a great time staying at Ariah Park, NSW ($10 per night, power, showers, toilet, camp kitchen with free BBQ) where all the girls learned to swim or gain confidence in swimming.  By the time we left almost all the kids had jumped off the diving board, dived in at the deep end and all (except Jireh) had swam a width unaided. 

When the time came to leave we headed slowly north.  We found ourselves at a lovely free camp between Cowra and Bathurst, Carcoar Dam.  There was plenty of space, clean toilets, cold showers, dam water and a couple of rain water tanks. 

The best part of staying here was having neighbours who we’d already met on facebook - Highway-Dreams Around Oz!  We didn’t know they were there so it was a very pleasant surprise.

The worst part of staying here was the wind!  The camps 6 book stated that it was a windy area, and they were not joking!  In the two weeks we stayed there …. we had about 2 days with minimal wind!

On a trip into Blayney to do shopping we noticed the local district show was coming up and that they had a pet dog show with a best trick section!  With less than two weeks to train, the girls got motivated!  The day of the show was a freezing cold and very blustery but the girls and dogs did well.

The results were:

Sparkie - 3rd in Best Tricks, 3rd in Speed Sit.
Tess - 1st in Best Tricks, 2nd in Speed Sit, 2nd in Best Biscuit Catcher, 3rd in Waggliest Tail.
Lassie - 2nd in Best Tricks, 1st in Speed Sit.

 

Stay tuned for our next adventure!