A FUN LIST

I got this in an email, but thought I'd put it on here.........

A fun list:  4 Things about me you may not have known

4 Jobs I have had in my life:
1.   Special Needs Teacher Aide   
2.   Stable hand
3.   Retail
4.    mmmmmmm...... sold Tupperware (?)

4 Places I have lived:
1.  Matamata
2.  Morrinsville
3.  Hamilton
4.  Putaruru (scary part is we nearly moved back to Putaruru when we were going to buy a house, talk about a full circle.

Four TV shows I love to watch:
(whaaaaaaat, only  4, I am a self confessed TVaholic)
1.  Grey's Anatomy
2.  NCIS
3.  ER
4   Lost (but we'll see what happens this season, I think I may be over it)
5  Bones
6  CSI (but really only the original)
7  Desperate Housewives (we got to live out our fantasies somehow)
........ and the list goes on

Four places I've been on vacation
1 Sydney
2 South Island
3 Various North Island destinations
4 Somewhere tropical for our 10th wedding anniversary this year

Four of my favorite foods:
1   chicken anything
2.  cheese anything
3.  chocolate anything, infact anything sweet
4.  Roasts (when we go out I pretty much always get a roast, 'cause I don't do them at home)

Four places I would rather be right now
1.   Anywhere where my kids aren't, (1 more week of school holidays, aaaargh)
2.   The beach
3.   Anywhere with my hubby
4.   Back in bed!


Four friends I think will respond.........

Well, you can all respond if ya want, I know you get sick of these 'tags' but I am looking forward to hearing about you.

HE'S BACK

And he enjoyed himself. And I don't think he starved either. He hasn't said much, although little snippets are coming out in the following days, as he remembers them. His leaders said he was good, I didn't get one of those horrible midnight calls, and........ he's eating porridge for breakfast again. About 6 months - 1 year ago, he used to be such a good eater at breakfast, then all of a sudden stopped, so hopefully, now we will be back on track.

In other news, we went to Tauranga/Mount today, nothing exciting, but just made the most of the weather forecasters bad prediction. Supposedly raining off and on today, ahem, not we were. We enjoyed Memorial Park, and had a game of mini putt, and then let the kids have a play in the Harbour. Cameron got to use his snorkel and mask, although wasn't too impressed, 'can't see anything'.

A DATE

In more ways than one.

My sister stayed Sunday night, so while she was here to look after the kids Jon and I jumped in the car and went for a drive to the Mount. We haven't been since last summer, and there have been quite a few changes. Normally we would have been to the beach several times so far, but the weather just hasn't played the game. We went for a walk around the mountain, had a Danish Cone, mmmmmmmm, and had some dinner. There is this great little place called Zeytins, and there is one in Tauranga too, on the strand. I'd never been, but it was recommended, glad we went. I had a Roast Vege & Chicken salad, so it was kind of like a green vege salad, with roast vege, and chicken, mmmm, that was good. It was very reasonably priced, and the staff were great, good atmosphere, quite casual.

The other 'date', (thankfully, after having another attack last night) is a date for my gallbladder surgery, Valentines Day of all days!!! It will just be an overnight stay, at the Southern Cross Hospital in Hamilton, as it is just keyhole surgery, fairly straight forward if everything goes OK.

Cameron has gone off to camp today. I've spent the last 3 days convincing him it was going to be fun, as he was dead against the idea, however, today he seemed quite keen to go. I hope it all goes well for him, 'cause if it doesn't, I'll never get him to go again. I took these photos as we dropped him off, but I'm gutted 'cause I had it on the lowest setting, so will have to stage some photos on Friday when we pick him up.

FAMILY TIME

We had a post Christmas get together, with my Dad's side of the family, as we didn't see everyone at Christmas time, although, half of them weren't there today either, it's funny how the same people turn up each time!

Anyway, those that were there had a nice afternoon.........and after lunch we went out to an old family friends farm. They played quite a part in our upbringing, it was neat to chat to my sister and Dad about the things we used to do, (and yes, I have jotted down some notes for a future page.) Anyway, their son, has got himself some Clydesdales, and along with some of his acquaintances, had put on a display of 'hay making the old way'. TurningGathering'Haystack'

Baling, using a steam driven tractor to operate the baler, and tying by hand!

NEW TOOL

Well, thanks to Kiwiscraps, my new tool arrived promptly this morning. I've had my eye on it for a while, and always tried to justify it, until the other day, when, spur of the moment, decided to just go ahead. It's nothing exciting, but I hope to put it to use alot. I want to use it for my Christmas album, just to unify it, so that will be the first task. And to make things better, one child has gone to a friends house, and the younger one has a friend here, so maybe I might get something done.

DRINKS

My new drink of choice. When we went out for drinks last week they didn't have any KGB's, so I had Smirnoff Ice, and I'm sad to report that KGB's are no longer welcome in our house, Smirnoff's have taken the pride of place in my fridge, or more correctly, in my hand. Especially at the moment. What sticky weather. And, I have to go back to work tomorrow, so that makes it worse. The good thing it is only one day, so come Tuesday I can get back with my Smirnoff, ;)

FINISHED

Yeah, baby, yeah, it only took 2 years to finally get here, but we finished.(Just need to hang the photos, but at the moment that ain't a priority) And in 1 day. (but I guess you can't say that when the prep work was done 2 years ago) I better add, that the whole room isn't this colour, that would just be too much, the rest is Spanish White, which is really quite boring, so I didn't take a photo.We sanded, sanded, sanded in the morning, painted, painted, painted in the afternoon, had a shower and headed off to the movies, (no time for a formal dinner), saw Deja Vu, with Denzel Washington, excellent movie, and then came home and painted again till about 12.30, and then did a bit of a clean up, bed about 2.30.

Yesterday was more cleaning up, trying to have a declutter in our house these holidays, but needed to do the kids rooms while they weren't there.

After an early dinner, or rather late lunch, we went up town for a drink, met up with some friends who were there and after they left my husbands boss also turned up, so had another drink with them. A really nice night, so must do that more often.

Anyway, better finish off the tidying up, and head of to pick up the kids today. Apparantely Mister just turned 8 is having issues with my sister, and wants to come home. He is a very fussy eater, and she bought mince and cheese pies, instead of just mince (heaven forbid), and then she had the 'indecency' to serve hotdogs (franks in buns), which she thought he liked, but turns out he doesn't anymore, so the whole world is coming to an end according to Cameron, I better go rescue him!!!

NO KIDS!!!!!!!















And look what we are doing!Finally.

After 2 years.

Finishing our lounge.

We started with great gusto, and got to the undercoat stage, after a hiccup with the plasterboard, and it never got any further.

So...... we shipped the kids off to my sisters, you just can't do it with the kids around, with the 'offer' of 'pick them up when you need to'. Ooooh, that is so tempting, LOL.

Anyway, while we can, we will get away to dinner and movies (any ideas???)

Wednesday

We headed off to Auckland for a couple of days, hopeful that the weather forecast we saw a few days before was not entirely correct.

We had to get the company car serviced on our way up to Auckland, so we a bit later getting there, but headed straight to Butterfly Creek. I'd seen and heard lots about it, what a neat place. We didn't get many butterflies land on us, or the few that did had gone again by the time I got the camera on. We also enjoyed Buttermilk Farm, and the Red Admiral Express.












































































After that we headed to Manukau and had an early dinner, and then to the movies (Night at the Museum, which as I said, is a great movies for kids and adults)

We checked into our hotel, and then went on a late night trek to the supermarket to get supplies for the next day. This is Cameron, mucking around in the shower It was very, very late by the time the kids went to sleep, as we only had a 1 room unit, which I swear is the last time we do that.






Thursday

Up nice and early, breakfast, and Rainbows End. Unfortunately Cameron was very reluctant to try many of the rides, although we managed to 'trick' him into getting on the log flume, and the gold rush, but he held that against us for the rest of the day.

While I watched Braden finish his turn on something, Jon and Cameron went and got us a seat to watch the magic show. This was amazing, a little loud, but I guess it got everyone in the mood. He did the usual come out in the crowd and pick someone, and stopped to ask me a question, and I freaked, but he was having me on, and chose a kid. Jon was laughing at me, only for the magician to come and pick him for an assistant. In the next trick he came back out to the audience, and yep, got me this time. Then for his last trick he chose Braden to go help him. The crowd was absolutely packed, so it wasn't like there was anyone else to choose, but I think he chose us because we were participating earlier.
We eventually got Cameron to try the kids rocket ride, and then we couldn't get him off it. I sent Jon off to have a turn on the roller coaster, while the kids had a few more turns, and before we knew it we were being shuffled out the door, it had been just after 10am, and it was now 5.50pm.

Looking for a good movie, especially for kids.......... a must see


NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM!

Camerons birthday /Rotorua

Saturday was Cameron's birthday, so, as his birthday 'party' won't be till later in the holidays, we decided to go to Rotorua for the day. It started out a bit miserable, and we braved a bit of rain for a game of mini-putt, and the boys went in the racing car simulator.

Then we went into town, and bought some bedroom furniture, during which time, the weather had cleared to be an absolutely beautiful afternoon, so we braved the crowds and went up the gondola. We were very fortunate to have arrived just as some guys were leaving, and they gave us their passes (the queue at this stage was about 20 minutes, and they had had enough), so we got a total of 9 free rides, wahoo! Last time Cameron had riden the luges with us, as we didn't feel he was capable of operating it himself. That time we were on the luge with him, and obviously it was heavier than if it was just him, so this time we let him try it by himself. That was the end of him. Had a ball. We finally used our passes up, (the queues got quite short after our second turn) and left about 7.30, very tired, but having had a great day.

We had planned to go to the Hamilton Zoo with my Dad on Friday after Christmas, but we woke on Thursday, everyone was awake early (well, early for us) and the weather was absolutely beautiful, so we went then instead (which was lucky, as it was wet on Friday)

Nothing too exciting happened, we got to see most of the animals, but the best thing was the chimpanzees, which have a new area. It has a bridge over their area, and after you walk across the bridge you can go check out their sleeping quarters. While we were standing at the bridge we noticed one of the animals was clutching something, which we later figured out to be a little girls hat. He then got up, and headed inside so we followed him, and we lucky to have a bit of an encounter at the viewing window.