A bit of us

"3 weeks in silver car"

2009-07-20T20:15:00.025+12:00

...sung in my best Crowded House 'Six months' voice!

I started doing a huge write up about our trip, and got sick of matching photos with words, etc, so here is a brief rundown of our 3 weeks travelling down to the bottom of Invercargill, and back again!

Monday—Matamata—Palmerston. Bitterly cold and very windy.

Tuesday—PN to Wellington. Movies

Wednesday—Wellington Zoo, and Te Papa.

Thursday—Shopping, and to the ferry for 1pm check in. The trip this time was very smooth, and the kids being a bit older were able to look after themselves. One night in Blenheim.

Friday— A long trip. One stop for car sick. Lots of stops for fresh air, a walk down into the riverbank. Another stop, and Braden and Dad down to the river again. Punakaki. Greymouth has been wet the 2 times we have been here...... I think we will skip it next time and stay elsewhere!!!!

Saturday—Greymouth to Franz Josef. Were going to go to pools, but very expensive, like $80, and we only wanted a quick dip!

Sunday—Away while the roads were cleared, after stopping to see the glacier it was a long trip.

Long day through Haast Pass, until we got to Puzzling World. Then onto Queenstown.

Monday—Gondola and Luge

Tuesday - Segways & onto Invercargill

Wednesday - Shopping

Thursday - bluff

Friday - Conference function

Saturday - Off to Dunedin

Sunday - Portobello/Aquarium/Baldwin St

Monday - Museum/Butterfly house/Cadbury

Tuesday - Christchurch

Snow

Thursday - up to Hamner

Friday - ferry crossing

Saturday

What have we been up to this weekend.........

2009-06-14T15:48:00.010+12:00

.......soccer - Jon took the boys to soccer, an hour away, so I knew I was going to get at least 3 hours to myself. They finally turned up 6 1/2 later........ yay to having the house to myself for the day, I think I owe him!

and this........Cookie time choc chip cookies, savoury muffins and jaffa muffins..... for lunch boxes and afternoon teas.

and this......
We've never owned a Scrabble Game, despite having every other game, so I told myself I would go have a look to see how much they were, I got there and it was the only game on special, AND, it had a free dictionary! Cameron attends the One Day School in Hamilton on Thursdays. It is Gifted Awareness Week this week, and part of that is a Scrabble-athon. There is some information here, although it is an old article, there is supposed to be a recent one coming this week. There are 2 website for our local association, found here and here.

" The budget cuts and current review means there is uncertainty regarding the future of gifted and talented education. There is no shortage of challenges in this area, many requiring urgent and thoughtful attention.

Since 2005 schools have been required to identify and provide for gifted and talented students, and this has been a huge step forward in raising the awareness and interest for appropriate gifted education provisions for all schools. However, recent reports demonstrate that many schools are struggling to meet this requirement due mainly to limited funding and insufficient professional development and support"

and this - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I'd considered going to see it when it was on at the movies, and now am pleased I didn't. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it didn't meet my expectations, if that makes sense. I found the sound very off-putting, and actually fell asleep, not once, but twice!

.........and this - Scrapbooking. While Jon and the boys were away I had some time to myself, so locked myself into my little room with the heater, and the radio and enjoyed the peace. I got 3 and 1/2 pages done, but forgot to photograph them individually so will do that when there is light tomorrow.and this - ever since we cleaned the flue a few weeks ago, we've been having problems with the fire, so after asking around, and finding what needed to be done, we finally fixed it, and have noticed a huge difference, not only does it not smoke the whole room, but it is so much more effecient.
....and new clocks for the boys. Well, not new clocks, but I bought them their own alarm clocks, partly to give them some responsibility for getting ready in the morning, but also because I came out this morning at 5 and found Braden up watching TV, and after asking, realised he had been up since 4.25!!! Don't worry, he was rather quickly shunted back to bed.

So, it has felt like a very productive weekend, so will go finish folding the washing, and then an early night to ward off a sore throat I feel coming along.........

2009-04-15T11:59:00.008+12:00

Because I haven't updated for so long,........... I'll do an update in bullet form...........

Braden successfully took part in his first Weetbix Tryathlon challenge. It was a long day for everyone involved, but I was so proud to see him do it, all by himself too, not in a team.
Soccer has started again, we haven't had any games yet, first weekend in May, but practice has, Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings for the next...... oh, 3 months!
Well, the holidays are upon us, and I've already had enough. Mr 10 just cannot entertain himself, and Mr 8 wants to have his fingers in all the pies, wants all the friends over, wants to do Soccer Camp, but is upset when it clashes with something else he wants to do..... I just want to sit quietly for 5 mins, LOL. I have 3 new Creating Keepsakes Mags to read. I haven't been buying them, but at the moment they have 2 free ones, so if they are 2 I don't have, then I will buy it, works out to just over $3 a mag, can't go wrong there.
Anyway, I just have to rave about my Scrappin Patch order! I ordered about 7 in the morning, by 8 I had an email to say that my order was packed and ready to go, and the courier picked it up at 9.30. Soooo, in anticipation of my ordering arriving today, and being able to sit down and create, (because I have been waiting to do a particular layout) I got out in the garden yesterday and did a couple hours hard work, and then again this morning. The people before us never had anything growing in the back garden, so there was a lot of work, just need to wait for my Buzzy Lizzies to 'root', and then I'll fill the garden with lots of colour! We also inherited some shelves for the garage, so now everything is nicely placed, and in a 'logical' place, wonder how long before a male in the house comes in saying 'where is..............?'
We also had one our chrysalises 'hatch' and have sent our first beautiful butterfly on it's way.
We have also had our cat at the vets. At first we thought he had broken his foot or leg, but didn't rush to the vets, as a friend had been in the same situation last weekend, and the vets wouldn't do anything till the Monday when they could do the x-rays. Then, on Monday, he had a sore on his leg, which at first we thought was where he had been 'gnawing' at the 'pain' in his leg, but after talking to my friend the vet, she said it was probably an abcess which had burst. He would have had the abcess all along, and that would be what was causing him to walk funny. Anyway, antibiotics is the way to go, he is already better after 2 doses. Poor baby, he is 16 years now, 17 in a couple of months, and we were having terrible thoughts about having to make the decision about his leg, fortunately that was made for us!
The cold weather has set in, we cleaned the fire, and have had some small fires going the last couple of days. One good thing about the cold nights is nice crisp clear days, which is great for washing. I was lucky enough to grab a couple of nice woollen blankets when we were clearing out a relatives house. We have lots of duvets, but nothing beats a woollen blanket, so they have been given a good airing today. I also got some yummy warm jamas. I don't normally wear jamas to bed, I have my own personal heater in bed, LOL, but sometimes when you've had a shower early in the evening, or going somewhere like Scrapcamp, etc, and you need something.
We went to the Easter show on Saturday. We didn't go last year,as it was just getting so expensive,but decided that as it fell in the holidays we would make a day of it. The kids had to earn some money to spend, we bought most of the stuff, but they had to choose to spend there money on side shows/games/ etc. Here they are earning some money, the hard way. We got there about 11, had a late breakfast, you just have to have hotdogs at the show, and had a quick wander around. We then went to the circus, which was just fantastic, and then to the Cadbury Magic show. We then grabbed some lunch, which was a bit disappointing. We ate in the 'cafe' area, but while sitting there, saw some more options outside, which looked yummier!
After watching Chelsea and her dogs, and looking around the trade stands, and the cats, animals, etc, and a few turns on the side shows, it was 5.15 and we needed to get going. We were supposed to meet someone for something, but that fell through (a whole 'nuther story, LOL). Do you know what, we did not even go into the ride area. Cameron did not want to go on anything, and Braden was a bit hesitant too, although we would have all gone on the slide, we just didn't go near it. We had some dinner and got home about 10.30...... I was very very tired, I'd been awake early, and it was a loooong day.

Anyways....... off to create!

Just a snippet for your info

2009-04-09T07:11:00.002+12:00

Scrappin Patch are having a 30% off everything birthday sale from Thursday 9 April to Tuesday 14 April.
There have a couple conditions. Sale prices only apply to in stock products, diecut machines are excluded and there is no free shipping during the sale. Vouchers can’t be used for sale goods.
If you link to their website and mention the sale on your blog you can earn yourself some flowers in your next order. Email Scrappin Patch with the link to your blog.
I saw this last night, and rushed to put my order in, as I missed a couple of products in another sale, and then fortunately saw that the sale hadn't actually started (all day yesterday I thought it was Thursday, LOL), so have done my order now.
Right, Easter weekend, the kids have made some eggs to give to their friends so I better go supervise the wrapping, and then get ready, yay, holidays!

(Aaarg, don't know how that happened, the whole thing is a link, and I don't have time this morning to fix it)

I've been away........

2009-04-05T22:07:00.013+12:00

So where have I been I hear you ask? Well first I stopped in Canberra, Australia, and did a page using product (Basic Grey) from Aussie Scrap Source .... then I jumped on a plane and headed to Papua New Guinea, and this layout has the colours represented on the PNG flag.
I then had a few hiccups with flights, and didn't make the next few destinations, let call it a detour (aka WORK) LOL.

Getting things sorted out I then headed to the US, where I picked up a bonus ticket, aswell as using the offered sketch created this page.
Finally we were offered several options for a pitstop, so here is my wildlife page........
and finally 4 extra pages, giving me 2 extra tickets.

So, my tally, for this little jaunt around the world;
my original blog post 1,
pages, 6,
tickets from Monday and Thursday, 2,
and a bonus for gallery comments, 1,

gives me 10 tickets by my reckoning.

It's been a whirlwind trip, would have loved to do more, but, I've scrapped more in a couple of days, than I do in a month!

I had a great time, and seeing the fabulous work in the gallery has been inspiring..... thanks Andrea for all your hard work for this little trip!

ETA Andrea has just given bonus tickets out for those that completed 4 challenges, which I managed to do, so that's now 11.

ETAA (Edited to add again) That makes 12 now, because if you blogged after the race started you also get a ticket. Funnily enough, I finished my blog post, and thought yay, all done, and then realised I hadn't loaded ANYTHING into any galleries, so nearly missed out completely, LOL.

Goodness me.......

2009-03-26T21:50:00.002+13:00

...... these posts are getting few and far between. I'm not even making posts for my own use, to help me remember dates and events, which is shocking.

I really should post more, but am very tired, a late meeting and not getting to bed till after 12 (I've been on an early to bed binge for the last 2 weeks, so 12 was very late), plus lots of travelling, and more tomorrow means I need to get to bed tonight.

Travelling to Auckland tomorrow afternoon, may mean I miss out on the excitement over at Scrapbook Outlet, Andrea has whipped the entire scrapbooking community in a frenzy over her plans, hopefully I won't miss the excitement tomorrow.

Until then........

2009-02-22T22:53:00.004+13:00

Well, 1 January was my last post, and I just haven't felt inclined to come back...... I am still here, still browsing your blogs, but always feel what I have to say isn't worth a blog post. I post regularly on Facebook, maybe because making a 'status update' can be done in a sentence, and I don't feel like I have to write more. I did look at Twitter, but decided I didn't need yet another avenue online, as it is I spend far too much time.

We didn't do much for the rest of the holidays, in fact, I don't think I have any photos or anything to share. The boys went to camp towards the end, a new camp to them, and although they say they didn't enjoy it, I think they did really.

Something I have been engrossed in over the last couple, no make that few months, really, it has gone on for the last year (and I know that 'cause I had a pediatrician appointment on the day before Christmas last last year) has been to find some 'help' for Cameron. For the last couple of years I have thought things weren't right, and it was put down to anxiety and OCD, however that still did not satisfy me, and I persued the matter. (and, looking at the date of that post shows me it is nearly 2 years that I have been fighting the system).

I happened to be speaking to a professional visiting our school, and queried her opinion. After explaining various behaviours she asked if we had considered the One Day School for him. I pushed through the paperwork and managed to wangle an assessment for the week before school started, as I knew I wanted answers before the term started. As it turns out Cameron has various levels of giftedness, ranging from extemely high in his thinking through to reasonably high in other areas. The testing also highlighted other areas where we will need to do some extra work in anticipation of intermediate next year, and college coming up. It has given me a professionals opinion, to give to the school, rather than just saying 'oh, my son is quirky'. Following this I have been vigourously reading books and online forums, hungry for information to help my son.

Last Thursday he started at the One Day school in Hamilton, and will go every Thursday for this term at least, and if we are happy with progress and results, he will go for the year. I am relieved that there are now answers, and wonder what could have happened had I not pushed for more.

We're all back settled into school. Braden is doing so well, involved with everything, his teacher is so impressed, I'm sure she must be talking about another child. Cameron is reasonably settled, has a second year teacher, so she is open to ideas, lots of enthusiasm, and he seems quite happy so far. I'm quite pleased how things are going with my job, a few changes from last year, but change is good.

We don't normally do anything exciting for Valentines, but I found out the Sky City had a 'Do not disturb' package for the weekend, so we nipped off to Auckland for Saturday, to be met with these lovely goodies, as well as valet parking, breakfast in the morning, and late check out of 1pm. We caught a movie, finally, at 10.45pm, after trying 2 times to get in and being sold out...... not a movie for everyone, but it was quite good. We then stopped in for a bit at the casino, and I think it was 4am by the time we got to sleep........ lucky we had that 1pm checkout!

I've done a bit of scrapping, not much, but will have to take those pictures when there is some light, hopefully over the weekend I will do some more. The weekends have been 'chocker' the last few weeks, so we have nothing planned this weekend, I am really looking forward to just relaxing and catching up.

Warning, a verrrrry long post, more for my records than anything else!

2009-01-01T23:07:00.016+13:00

On Sunday after Christmas we packed up and headed to Napier/Hastings for a couple of days. We've wanted to go to Splash Planet for a few years now, and after we cancelled our beach house this summer we thought these holidays would be a good time to go to Splash Planet.

Hindering our plans was our cat Rocky, who, on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning was looking a bit down. He had been to the vet about a week before Christmas with a cut, it was then the vet commented on a couple of things that made him think Rocky had hyperthyroidism, aswell as a tooth that needed to come out. He wanted to wait till his leg healed and then do tests, so we knew he wasn't 100%. After much deliberating and conferring with my sister, bless her soul, we headed off, with the plans to ring the vet first thing Monday, for her to drop him off and for him to do whatever needed doing.

We drove straight to Napier, had a look around, lunch, wandered along Marine Parade, a little play at the beach and 10 Pin bowling ..... before heading over to Hastings. We tried to go out for dinner to a 'stone grill' place but they appeared closed over the break so had fish and chips back in our room, before going down to the motel pool.

First thing Monday I rung the vet, told him to do what needed, probably take that tooth out, before we headed across the road (yay, no parking problems) to Splash Planet. The kids love water in any form, so they were in their element, we enjoyed ourselves aswell. About lunchtime it started clouding over, but we carried on, after all it was just more water, LOL. About 4pm it really started raining, which was unfortunate as that was when we had hopped to dry off and do a couple of dry activities, mini golf, go-karts, etc, but the kids went on the cars in the rain, (while I sheltered) and we flagged the golf.

This lady was a great sport, she got right in there, and was having lots of fun with our boys, who were giving her all they had!

We tried the stone grill place again, only to be told it had closed down, so had Breakers for dinner

We heard from my sister, saying Rocky was all OK, he had 4 teeth out in the end, so had anti-biotics, and the vet was waiting for the results regarding blood tests.

On Tuesday it was Camerons birthday, so we had a little cake and sang for him, and gave him a couple of presents we had taken with us, including a camera from us.

We headed over to Napier for the day. First stop, Marineland. While it is a shame they are no longer doing shows now there are no dolphins, it bought back memories (must get Mum to dig out photos from when I went there when I was about 12) and we enjoyed the animals there.These penguin cut outs were pretty much life sized, amazing!
When we had been wandering along the beach front on Sunday, the kids spotted a skate park, and begged to go, so we took them down there. Neither of them really enjoyed it, which was a shame, one just refused to do anything, and the other reluctantly had a turn on a few jumps but we were quite annoyed at them. We told them that because they had had a turn at doing something for them, we were going to the old Napier Prison for a tour. It was quite interesting, especially that it was still in use up to15 years ago. Cameron was in a real bad mood, he really looks the part, in fact, we could have quite happily left him there! We then parked back down at Marine Parade, got some photos of icons and various places, and a game of mini golf, before making a booking at Hogs Breathe Cafe (they said they were going to be packed, so best be booked in) and heading to the movies. We saw Bedtime Stories, a good family feel good movie, before heading back for a late dinner.

Wednesday we weren't in any rush to get home, so called into Rock Climbing in Napier, before heading toward home (thinking the roads might be busy, which they weren't) for late late lunch in Taupo. Taupo was absolutley packed, everywhere, and we ended up at this nice little place called Dixie Browns, which looked very inviting. Unfortunately looks are deceiving, while it was a nice atmosphere, the service was good, the food was terrible, and very very expensive. I knew what the prices were when we went in, and was quite happy to pay that, had it been good food, however it was not, and the presentation was shocking. I had something which was 'touted' as roasted chicken sandwich and fries, which sounded similar to something I often have at the local cafe, an open sandwich, chicken, salad, dressing etc. However what I received was, a good old fashioned toasted sandwich, (overcooked too) with some fries, no salad, no effort at presentation, $12 thank you. The kids hot dogs and fries were $8.50 (you can do hotdogs for $1)When we finally got to the bill, they charged us for someone elses food, AND the mid sized glasses of lemonade were $4. It wasn't appropriate to discuss it with them then and there, but I have sent a letter outlining my displeasure at our food, will see if anything comes of it. It would have had to have been the worst dining out experience I've had in a long time.

We left there, and stopped in at AC baths for a late afternoon swim, which was very pleasurable. It has changed a bit since we've been, for the better, great improvements. I didn't take my camera in with me, thinking to myself 'we are just going swimming, I've got lots of photos of us swimming', however they had this great tarzan swing thing which the kids loved and would have made great photos, oh, well, a good reason to go back.

We had thought our late lunch would have seen us through until we got home, but due to the lack of food we ended up stopping in Tokoroa for another bite, before winding our way home, with next to no traffic, which made it a nice drive.

2009-01-01T22:30:00.010+13:00

The day before Christmas I had a follow up appointment with the osteo, unfortunately had to go to Rotorua. It was quite nice in that it made Jon leave work behind, and get out for the day, as he had spent the first 2 days of his 'holiday' catching up. While at my appointment the osteo commented that he should have hooked me up with his other patient, and we could have come over together, so who do I see when I get to the shops, but one of the teachers from the school, who happened to be his patient. The osteo also commeneted on parking at the shops, and said that as I was his last patient we could leave our car in his car park and walk across the road, so that saved a lot of trouble. I also saw the parents of an old school friend, and while waiting in queue spotted a familiar face, and when we got out of the queue (at least 10 deep) had a quick catch up with Shell.

Christmas Day - started out very unsure, what was the weather going to do? Loving the fact that we have a great big house now, and had no hesitations inviting anyone who wanted to come for lunch and/or dinner. When the weather looked a bit iffy we decided not to put the big gazebo up (it's a party sized one, double the norm and quite tricky to assemble) figuring it was not going to be hot enough to need it, nor was it going to rain. We ate inside, and mixed and mingled both inside and out, with the weather holding out for us.We had picked up Jon's Dad from the rest home, and my Dad was here, my sister and her 2 children, my other sister, my Aunty and uncle, and my Nana, and Jon's 2 sisters, plus us 4, so it was a nice size. Very relaxed, turkey, ham, salads, and pudding, followed by the compulsory crackers, etc.About midday the SIL's left, as did my Aunty and Uncle, and Nana, and my Mum, her husband and my little brother came for dinner, which we finally had about 7, would have had it even later only Mum needed to get going.
I must have been a good girl this year (I did try, very hard), Santa was very generous, and I got a video recorder, absolutely tiny, amazing. It has lots of cool features, I've worked out the basics, just so I could use it straight away, however, will need to have a good look at the workings of it.

The kids got the latest craze toys, Bakugan, and they seemed very happy, along with Bradens tent, and other bits and pieces. Braden and his cousin slept in the tent, although Braden came inside in the middle of the night as Troy was 'hogging the bed'. He went on to sleep out there the next night by himself, and stayed the whole night.On Saturday we went to MIL's place, for a nice casual lunch for Jons birthday. 2 envelopes that had got missed on Christmas day were delivered to the boys, another $20 to add to their stash and they were overjoyed!

Wow.......

2008-12-22T21:30:00.003+13:00

...... what a day. I am so pleased it's over, I have been in and out more times than I care to consider.

First, just after 8, I whizzed to the supermarket, before the hoards, although I had nearly 3 year old niece with me, which makes it a whole new experience.

Then, just before 10 I picked up a friend of Bradens, and dropped them at Craft and Creations, went back and picked up hubby, and Cameron, stopping in a the Post Office, (big mistake) for Cameron to price up a parcel for something he sold on Trade Me, and then dropped hubby home.

Right, back home, to the first of 6 loads of washing........

Back out just after 12 to pick up the boys, with a stop into the park, because I wasn't going to go home, and out again at 1pm for Bradens haircut, so after hair is done, we head home, where we wolf down a mouthful of lunch......

Right, ....... track down mother of said visiting child..... drop off niece at home, and head to the osteopath to get my neck looked at, fortunately he was able to squeeze me in......

Home. For an hour. Down to pick up hubby, and back home to swap cars, as he had the only set of keys to his car, and then off to Tokoroa (about an hour drive for those who aren't local) to visit MIL who has ended up in hospital with a chest infection. Nip out to the Warehouse the get a little fan for her, because it is roasting in the hospital ward........ and finally back home, where we stopped into the local Indian for some dinner.

Whew! What a day. I am so ready for tomorrow, hopefully no where to go...... just some tidying, and plans to alter, now that MIL is ill we will have any extra people at our house, instead of hers.......... that should be easy after today.

I haven't done my Christmas cards, I'm a bit gutted, as I've made them all, but they won't get out in time, so will save them for next year, see, one step ahead already, and will send out some New Year greetings instead, as I have time to do that between Christmas and New Year.

Now, if the kids would only go to sleep I might attempt to wrap some presents, although I might wait for hubby to come home, as I find the neck doesn't take kindly to looking down too much.

I hope you all have a great Christmas, with your family and friends, in whatever setting you do have it, and that the New Year is kind to you.

Having a whinge

2008-12-18T20:18:00.002+13:00

I wanted to whinge and whine yesterday, but didn't want to spoil the whole 'whoo hoo Wednesday' thing...... so I'm back today to do it, LOL.

I'm just sick and tired of people moaning, about everything. For goodness sake, if you have an issue then deal with it, do what you can to change it, and if it is not something that can be changed for goodness sake, shut up. Things in the past are in the past, and unless you have learned anything from it, then don't keep going on about it.

Don't blame others for the situation you are in, (I know there are some exceptions there), you are the creator of your own destiny. Just do it.

Funny, as I sit here, I just stretched, (I've got a sore neck, which is now heading now my shoulder and back) and as I stretched I saw a poem that one of the kids got given on a bookmark.

What is life?

Life is a challenge - meet it.
Life is a gift - accept it.
Life is an adventure - dare it.
Life is a sorrow - overcome it.
Life is a tragedy - face it.
Life is a duty - perform it.
Life is a game - play it.
Life is a mystery - unfold it.
Life is a song - sing it.
Life is an opportunity - take it.
Life is a journey - complete it.
Life is a promise - fulfill it.
Life is a beauty - praise it.
Life is a struggle - fight it.
Life is a goal - achieve it.
Life is a puzzle - solve it.
Life is eternal - believe it.

And on that note......... I'm outta here :)

Whoo hoot Wednesday

2008-12-10T21:02:00.003+13:00

The smell wafting from the kitchen table, due to a visit here on the weekend, stocking up for pressies.

Finally finishing the lights....... well....... I still really want to put some down the end of the drive, but the logistics of getting power down there is the problem. It's taken a few nights over the last week or two, but we're pretty happy now. Will have to try to get photos!

Only 7 more days of work........ yay.......... although I then have 3 kids home for 3 weeks. What's that you say? I thought you only had 2 boys?!?!? Yes, thats right, I do only have 2 children, but the biggest kid finishes on the 19th aswell. Normally he would have worked through till at least Wednesday, sometimes half of Thursday, but the company he now works for has a close down for 3 weeks, I think it's going to be a long 3 weeks.

Having some time out on Saturday with our local scrapbooking group, I didn't do much, sorted the pages that I had pulled out of my albums, and just generally chatted really. I have been very emotionally drained due to some personal stuff happening, and needed some time away. Whew, that was great!

Ummmmm, I think that is about it, 2 more functions this weekend, and then that's us, apart from the odd school activity, until the big day..... so until then...... I should go do cards, when I say do, I had these great plans of making them, but I think I might just start writing in store cards, at least they're done!

I've done something silly......

2008-11-27T20:50:00.004+13:00

..... maybe. About a week ago I found the young fellas bike helmet lying on the floor. Now, I've got to the stage (more soon) about stuff lying around, so I think, (and thats where it gets difficult)
I picked it up and put it away, like in a cupboard. The tricky part is, now I can't find it. I'm not 100% thats what I did, or if I only thought about it, but now the helmet is nowhere to be found. And, until it's found, he's not allowed to ride his bike, which is really hurting him. I'm taking the stance at the moment, that he should have looked after it, but if I had put it away it would have only been for a couple of days, however it's been over a week now, and I'm feeling bad!

When we lived in a smaller house, there were limited places for stuff to be kept. Now we have extra rooms, cupboards, space, garaging etc, things seem more spread out. Like, some computer stuff is in the office, and some in the cupboard in the lounge, letters and bills, etc are sometimes by the computer, because thats where I do online banking, or on the bench as you walk in the kitchen, or in the office......... get the drift?!?! This weekend is free, so I'm going to try to put some procedures in place, label things, define homes, etc. (and hopefully in the process find this blimmen helmet!)

Christmas is around the corner, and I've already had enough of this whole present thing. My husbands family is big on presents, but now everyone has started saying, oh, I don't know what I want, just get me a voucher, well, if we are all exchanging voucher for same or similar amounts, then why bother. Theres not much thought happening these days!

We went to Hamilton for a work function last Saturday night, and stayed over, so when we got up Sunday morning we had breakfast downtown, and then did a bit of Christmas/birthday shopping, without the kids!

The kids at school had the opportunity for a golf day today, so I popped out in my break to watch, although by the time I got out there, and allowed for time back, I only saw Braden have a couple of shots. He had a great time though, must be running in his blood from his father and grandmother!

Finally, this was something I saw a while ago, and just saw it again on Hannahs blog, so here's my contribution. You have to go to your photos file, or flickr album or whatever you use, go to the sixth folder, and choose the sixth photo. This was taken on Camerons first day of school, he turns 10 in a month, so it's 5 years ago. Man he looked so tiny! The other 2 include a nicer photo of him posing, and one of him in the junior playground. While looking at it, the kids we looking over my shoulder, and we went back and had a look at a few other photos from around that time, they thought it was great, must get my albums back out into the lounge, now that we have that space I was talking about!

Whoo hoot Wednesday

2008-11-12T20:34:00.004+13:00

Can't really think of anything exciting to Whoo hoot about.... just lots of bits and pieces happening.

Christmas is looming, gee how hard it is to organise families. I put my foot down this year, and said we are staying home, (because every year we have spent it on one side of the family,) but opened our house to both sides of the family and all other related and non related strays, and it doesn't seem to be working. Anyway, I've come up with the theory that those that come will have a great day, those that don't will miss out!, and we won't be making any other trips to have 'catch up Christmases'. We have 2 birthdays in the 5 days after Christmas so want to keep things simple.

Christmas lights....... have pulled them out to check them out and plan, bought another couple of sets now that this house has a 'longer' front, therefore more lights needed.

Getting back into exercise. Just made a point of doing it, ahead of other stuff. I'd always thought, 'oh, this needs doing, or I have to be here or there', now I just do it. Ever since we got the bike and home gym I've been hesitant about the gym, not sure if we were doing it right, but a friend put me onto a 'freelance trainer' who will come to your place, and help you out, to what ever level you want, just the basics, or he will keep tabs on you, and do things like kick-boxing with you. It will be good to get the basics under control, will make it all seem worthwhile. (and, as I have absolutely no self control, there is no temptations in the house, which has made it alot easier)

Getting further help for emotional and social issues with our eldest, nothing is set in place yet, but we have finally found an avenue that will work for us. More to come later.

Finally making an appointment for the youngest to see an orthodontist......eeeek, hear the dollars sigh ch-chinging! He seems to have my problem, small mouth not enough room for teeth, so hopefully some teeth out, like they did to me, might help. I was lucky they got in early, and I didn't need braces, or a plate, all I had to do was sit with an iceblock stick (and the dentist said I was allowed to watch TV, yay for the dentist) for half an hour(?) and gently prod my two front teeth forward. It worked! (Now, isn't that a journalling spark if I ever heard one!)

I scrapped heaps over a period of 2 days last week, did 5 pages, couldn't believe it, but haven't done anything since. (just need to take photos)

Mmmmmmm, thats about it..... just stuff happening, but yet nothing exciting!

Labour Weekend

2008-10-26T19:15:00.004+13:00

Not much happening here! What about your place?

I had my sisters kids stay Friday night, and we just mucked around yesterday, bit of TV, playstation, bikes, etc, and then our kids stayed at her place, while we went to the movies. There wasn't much on, so we saw Burn after reading, not really worth it, IMO, but I guess you don't know these things till you watch them.

Today was much of the same, although the house was quite quiet with the kids gone, I got up and made some muffins, mmmmmmmm, Pumpkin muffins. I probably went a bit over the top, too much cream cheese frosting, but I was trying to make them look good. The new piping bag split it's seam, so I resorted to the good 'ole Glad Snaplock bag, but ended up sticking my nail through it, so the last few were just iced with a knife (not that it changed the taste, LOL)

What about the weather today? Crazy! It was beautiful when I got up, so put my washing out, yet half an hour later it rained, I ran and got it in as I didn't want to spin it again before putting in the dryer, only for it to clear up again. We contemplated washing the cars, before it hosed down, and hailed and got cold. We lit the fire, and went to pick the kids up, and it cleared up and got really warm, so were expecting it to be quite hot in the lounge when we got home, but never mind, it rained again....... I give up!

Anyway, here is a page I did a few weeks ago, might even do another to match it, with more photos that we have of the individual family groups..... and now I might go work on our Australia pages some more.

Hope you weekend has been all you wanted, whether you are busy, or just chilling!

Time waster

2008-10-19T19:06:00.005+13:00

OK, so I have so many better things I should be doing, but this is lots of fun

If you go here, you can do lots of cool things with your photos (click on them will give you a much better idea of what I'm on about)

Not like you needed anymore ideas on how to waste time, aye???!??!?

school holidays........

2008-10-08T11:43:00.007+13:00

.... are neither here nor there for me, KWIM, I like having some time off, but having the kids around is a drag (LOL, damn those kids). Braden is fine, he can entertain himself, wanders off, gets busy, finds friends, and if no friends are around he's just as happy, but Cameron gets bored easily. He doesn't cope well with no routine, finds it hard to do things by himself, and likes to annoy everyone. They haven't been too bad, we've made sure we got out for walks, park, library, and also had a couple of days out. They have had their cousins stay last night, and now all 4 have gone to the local church for Craft and Creations.

The first Saturday we were in Hamilton anyway, so took them to see Journey to the Centre of the Earth. I wasn't too keen, but it was the kids choice, and the best one for us all to see, and was pleasantly surprised, it was quite good.

On Friday Jon was working in Rotorua in the morning, so the kids and I went over mid morning, went for a wander around the shops, had lunch at the lake, and then met up with Jon and went to the luge. We went about a year ago, but they are doing lots of work at the moment. There is a new 'launch' point, new helmets and another set of chairlifts, as well as photo points (quite reasonably priced). It's the first time Braden has been able to go by himself, which has been good in one way, but it's getting really expensive with all 4 of us loving it, and wanting more and more!

We've done some activities around home, made sushi, that was fun, and coincidently I found this cool game, really gets your mind thinking, (lots of fun for the kids too, LOL)

I haven't done much scrapbooking, despite spending Saturday at an all day crop (but that was just time out for me) I did do this page on Saturday, probably the first time I've started and finished a page in a day. It is a sketch Trina's that I've had stashed away to use, for ages, so was pleased to use it for these photos which had been around for a bit too.

Right, better go sort these boys out, I'm swapping for some girls this afternoon, that should be interesting.

So........

2008-09-23T21:52:00.008+12:00

....... last weekend, we finished work midday on Friday and jumped on a plane to Christchurch for the weekend.

We didn't really have any firm plans, except to catch up with SIL, and to catch our plan home!

We had a good ride down, and got to our hotel, before deciding to head out for early dinner, as we'd hardly had any lunch to due flight times. After a really nice meal, (with some interesting entertainment, some sort of party meeting place, pirates, and all sorts of costumes, a P party we think) we went for a wander, and ended up at the casino. We had some luck on the roulette table, so left while we were ahead, and watched the last half of the Warriors game over a drink.

We were lucky to snap a great deal for accomodation at the Grand Chancellor, including breakfast, so we enjoyed breakfast in the hotel, and then wandered downtown. We went to the Arts Market, (didn't buy much,) and then down to Scrapbook Art, again, didn't buy much, and then wandered back into town. We found TimeZone, and spent awhile there, just chilling, it was lots of fun.We then met SIL for a late lunch, and then back to the hotel for a snooze. We walked down (up???) town, and bought movie tickets, to see Stepbrothers. I was a little hesitant to see it, as the last movie that Jon had chosen (Tropic Thunder,) really bombed, but it was OK, not the funniest, but watchable. We had a little to eat, remember we were still full from late lunch. I was quite keen to go out, in town, but Jon was feeling a bit grandpa-ish so we had an early night (well, it was about 12 by the time we walked home)

In the morning we had breakfast again at the hotel, and then caught a bus out to Riccarton Mall, and met up with Vicki for coffee. It was nice to see you again Vicki, we really got to stop meeting like this (she bumped into Jon while I was in a shop).

We went down to check out Punting, but had a wait for a while, so someone had a nana nap by the river, I couldn't sleep, bit paranoid, but Jon was not worried at all obviously.
We caught our 'boat', with a great guide, young fella on a working holiday, a few snapshots, nothing exciting.
We then wandered back through town, cashed in our tickets at TimeZone, and picked up our bags from the hotel. We were in a predicament, too early to head out to the airport, yet not enough time to do anything else. We ended up heading out to the airport, grabbing a magazine, and just chilling for an hour.

Our flight home was quite horrible, lots of turbulence, our attendant said in her 6 years of travelling it was the worst she had experienced. The take off and landing were fine, and there was nothing the pilot could do, but it gave me grief with my ears, and was quite uncomfortable for a couple of hours. We got home about 11pm, and crashed quite quickly.

We were so tired, but put it down to all the walking we did, it didn't seem like much at the time, (it must have been the good company, LOL) but when we looked at the map, and put it in perspective, it was quite a bit, (and we were quite tired before we even got there, it had been a busy few weeks)

Anyway, we had a great weekend, even though we were tired, would still do it again.

OK, Ok, I'm still here

2008-09-23T21:04:00.006+12:00

...... after a not so gentle hint from a secret lurker, I'm here to say I'm still around.

Not too much happening.

A full day of 5 aside soccer, on Fathers Day of all days. Very tiring, especially as we had to drive nearly an hour there, and then we stayed and took my Dad out for dinner, and home again. Our team didn't do very well, not for want of trying though, I thought they'd done so well.A couple of weekends ago we had soccer prizegiving. Before the actual prizegiving, there is a parents vs child game, which Dad participated in. The day before we had helped do the fertilizer drive with the Lions, as fundraising for the soccer club, and I had hurt my back, so I was out of soccer.We were very proud to see (and.... the bloody batteries died right at the wrong time) Braden receive 'Most Improved Player'. We'd just had a conversation the night before, prepping him for the fact that not everyone would get a medal, etc, so you should have seen his face when he heard his name.

Last weekend I got out into the vege garden, had prepped it earlier, so planted some seeds, and they've come away well, in fact I was quite surprised to see how well. My niece was also staying, so we planted some sunflower seeds too, and then she can have some at home.

I'll be back to write about our weekend away!

Wow, what a weekend...........

2008-08-31T12:05:00.004+12:00

....... and it's only 3/4 of the way gone, some time for me this afternoon I feel!

So far already we have:

- Entertained family who stayed Friday night and Saturday morning.

- Washing

- Braden had his final game of soccer for the season. Their team won their division, in fact, they won it even before yesterdays game. They played so well, yesterday in particular, and have really come together as a team. I had a proud Mother moment yesterday, when standing on the sideline, I overhead 2 ladies talking, one knew my son, one didn't. The one who didn't commented to the other, while watching Braden "Gee, that Braden's a really good player" I couldn't help but smirk to myself, with my back turned, made my heart swell! After the game we gave a little gift to the coach, and all the kids went back to her place for lunch and to watch the video of their games.

- Been for a family walk, just wandered up town, and came home the long way, nice to get out in the fresh air for a change.

- Did a huge tidy up in the garden, cleaned up some areas that hadn't been done for a while. There is an area that has been a garden of some sort, but has been let go. It is level with the grass, so I just gave it a good weed, roughed it up, and will grass it. It won't be flash looking, but thats OK, it's around a corner and at least we will be able to mow it.

- Put together our gym and the bike, and tidied up all the packaging that came with that!

- Mowed the lawns. Met the neighbours. Made scones for lunch. Supervised children. And all done with 2 extras, man, I forget how hard it is to look after a 2 year old. She just wants to be my shadow and talk to me non stop!

- Now I'm off to pick up Juniors bike, which got left on the farm weeks ago, and with this fine weather he is missing it, hoping the littlie will sleep, then drop them off home, and have that time to myself for an hour or two before the week starts.

ETA Oooops, I hit the wrong button and it never posted, so now I've got the bike, let the little one have a roam around the farm and see all the animals, got some cool photos that I'll make into a little laminated book for her, and have picked up the grass seed!!! Just a few more hours left, I think I'll do some baking.

Wahoo.......

2008-08-28T07:35:00.001+12:00

.. tried to post this yesterday, but hubby was on the computer. I guess it was a bit rude to kick him off, considering I'd had all day to do it, while he was at work.

Anyway, I am just so happy to have so fine weather, and having just pulled my curtains, it looks to be another cracker today, yay!
....

Whoo Hoot Wednesday

2008-08-20T20:05:00.003+12:00

OK, so this afternoon I didn't really have anything to post. The Playstation broke last night, I was annoyed as it was just out of warranty....... we have a property inspection tomorrow (which didn't really bother me), the young fella was sick, you know, one of those days.

Then Cameron came home and said he was receiving a Principals Award at Friday Assembly, he was beaming from ear to ear, so that certainly brightened my day.

After finding the paperwork for the Playstation I realised the extended warranty meant we were covered, so that is good news too.

And, some reasonably good weather today rounds off my Wednesday 'whoo hoots' for this week.

Sunday night

2008-08-17T20:05:00.004+12:00

OK, so if you aren't watching it, you need to! (Provided you feel comfortable laughing at others misfortunes!). TV 3, 7.30pm, has to be the best thing since Funniest Home Videos.

Right, now we have finished laughing at others, what else this weekend? Not much! The weather hit again, I can't believe in the last 4 weekends since we have been in the new house it was been wet all the time, and the 1 weekend it was fine was the weekend we were both busy and out of town.

I spent some of Saturday afternoon, after we had dodged the rain to go for a walk, finishing up the garage, most of the stuff in the garage actually belongs there now, just a couple of boxes, and some decisions about stuff to get rid of, and then I guess you could say we are all moved in.

this afternoon we went to Hamilton to have a look at gym equipment. We are lucky to have a back room which we can use as a gym area, so rather than spending $1200 for a year long gym membership for us, we bought some gear for ourselves, and have set some goals together to get serious, (eeeek, that sounds so serious!!!)

On that note, I'm off to laugh at some more competitors, and then to do my warm-up for the Olympics.

2008-08-13T20:57:00.004+12:00

Well, I really thought I should make an appearance around here, so I guess Whoo Hoot Wednesday is as good as day as any.

Nothing terribly exciting to Whoo hoot about

- Yay for haircuts, cut and colour today, much needed!

- A definate yay that while I was contemplating mopping the kitchen floor, I didn't get around to it, fortunately as Junior was clearing the table, and dropped the tub of coleslaw, which broke and spilled on the floor

- School interviews that went well, both teachers were very happy, although Junior tends to get a bit silly with a mate, but that's not major.

-More yays for this house. Braden had his birthday party on Sunday. Now, normally I would have been freaking because of the wet weather, but knowing we had plenty of space, plus the double garage if we needed it, I wasn't worried. As it turned out, the weather was great, the kids opened the presents, played one game I set up, had lunch, and then I never saw them again, they spent over an hour at the College field, and tennis courts, entertaining themselves!

So, anyway, as I said, it was Bradens party on the weekend, his birthday is actually tomorrow, and this time 8 years ago, I was completely unaware of what was to change overnight. You see, Braden wasn't actually due until mid September, so when I woke at 5ish in the morning to a little bit of action, I did not expect him to be born that day. We went to the local delivery suite/hospital to check out what was happening, to be told they would send me through to Waikato. Soon the ambulance had backed up, they had a lure in, and my doctor decided to check how far along I was, discovering bubs was nearly here. He broke my waters and he was born about 20mins later. Eeeek!

Whoo Hoot Wednesday.....

2008-07-23T22:32:00.002+12:00

..... actually on a Wednesday, for a change.

Well, 4 days later, and we are pretty much settled in. There is still a ton of boxes in the garage, that I refuse to bring into the house until the have been sorted, I'm not having boxes of 'stuff' in here.

- Yay for all the cupboards here. That would have to be my biggest wahoo today. I did the kitchen yesterday, and today found a cupboard, and 3 drawers, plus the cupboards that are right up the top (think preserves, or similar, for stuff not used much at all) that haven't been filled yet. When setting up the kids 'lounge/toy area' it was great to be able to stick my jigsaw puzzles up out of the way, leaving cupboard space clear for their sets.

- Can't wait till Saturday. Well, I can, as I haven't sorted out anything, still have to find some bits and pieces, but am really looking forward to a day out, and meeting all the ladies I have spoken with, and know all about, but not met.

- Pleased to have the fire going, we didn't have any wood for a couple of days, but got some today, so nice to be warm, just do not like the cold at all!

That's enough for me, makes me happy, so all is good.

2008-07-18T16:51:00.003+12:00

Just about to lose my internet, so will do a quick post.

I was gonna post my whoo hoot's on Wednesday, but forgot.

- extra room at the new house

- 2 toilets, yay, can't wait for that

- that it is the holidays, and I had time to pack, lets hope the wet weather stays away for tomorrow. I have done all the stuff I can in the car, and it's just the big stuff we are doing tomorrow.

- that my sister is back in town, I miss having her around, and my niece and nephew.

That'll do for now, I've got some more tidying to do, before we cave in for the night with fish and chips and a movie!

OMG

2008-07-14T15:09:00.002+12:00

It's all on.

We had been trying to find a rental property (we are going to rent ours out, and rent something a bit bigger) last week, and had one lined up, but someone got in before us, so put it on the back burner while we were away.

Then..... this morning I get the call to say it's ours if we still want it, so we are moving. Friday. Right, I have 3 days to pack up, and clean, and thats from scratch, we haven't had a couple of weeks to prepare, and start, and declutter, and clean, etc, it's all go now!

I can't wait, 4 bedrooms, plus an office, double garage with internal access, cul-de-sac, and just over the fence to the intermediate and college (when the kids go in a couple of years).

So..... on that note, I'd better go, get packing, I want to do the kids rooms before they come home, and see what I've thrown out, LOL.

Woo Hoot Wednesday........

2008-07-13T21:10:00.004+12:00

......... on a Sunday.

I had this all thought out in my head, while rushing around trying to get ready to go away and never got it done.

- Yay for my cool as sister, who is staying here looking after my kids while Jon and I go away

- Yay, for going away. Jon has the conference in Auckland, so am really going to enjoy the few days away.

- Pleased to be on holiday, thankful, as there is so much happening, and don't think I'd get it all
done if I were working

Will post again about our couple of days away, just want to catch up on a couple of jobs and get some washing on.

Whoo Hoot Wednesday

2008-07-02T16:42:00.002+12:00

Right, Whoo Hoot Wednesday seemed a great opportunity to get back into the habit of blogging.

- Every year, the industry that my husband works in, has a NZ Wide Conference. These are great fun, very fancy, dinners, etc, and up until this year, the partners have gone. Because he is now working for a new company, rumour was that partners don't go, and, in fact, until late last week even he didn't think he was going. But, yesterday gossip was that partners were invited. Yay, I thought, although I had nothing organised for the kids, and as such short noticed didn't know if it would all work out. Before confirmation we had toyed with the idea of paying ourselves for me to go, but really didn't know....... now that everything is confirmed we have managed to sort something out for the kids.

- Yay, for a weekend crop. Just out of town there is a 'studio', nothing flash, so half a dozen of us are getting together to scrap this weekend. The best part, we get cooked for, and stay the night, and it's only costing us $50. I can see it's going to be a late night on Saturday, and even more yay, is that it is the holidays so it won't matter if I don't get much sleep. I have been challenged to get 12 pages done, which will definately be a mission for me. I am so much the queen of procrastination, stuffing a half finished page back into the folder to 'finish later'. However, I have sorted and printed my photos from Australia, and have most of the papers I need, so might just have to cut my titles before I go, as we have a printer there,........... and here's hoping to getting finished.

Right, I don't want to shock you all, burbling on, after no posts for so long!

2008-07-01T18:27:00.003+12:00

OK, so I haven't been around much, just don't seem to have had anything to say, but I'll start with this..........

As seen on Janine's Blog: The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed. Well let’s see. 1)Look at the list and bold those you have read. 2) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.

01. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
02. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
03. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
04. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (I've read #1, started 2)
05. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
06. The Bible - (A majority of it as a teenager)
07. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
08. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
09. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (teacher read it to us at Intermediate)
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwel
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (was forced upon us in 5th form)
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet- William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - Love, love, love Roald Dahl.
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Mmmm, I'm definately one of those that you should seek out, and force books upon! Those ones in blue are ones read as a child, while others are more recent, as you can see, not many!

So, here's the challenge! If you recommend something from that list, I will read it. I will wait a few days until I have a few people comment, and will read the most recommended book. Now, be easy on me, while I like to read, I just don't seem to get into books at the moment. I have read Of Mice and Men, admittedly at school, and have read Winnie the Pooh, and Charlottes web, Charlie and the CF, and love love the Faraway Tree, (and don't seem to be able to find copies these days)

Go on, recommend something, and I promise I will read it.

Really tired.....

2008-06-16T19:58:00.003+12:00

.... but just wanted to let you know I was still alive.

Here are a couple of funnies that a friend sent me

http://view.break.com/484483 - Watch more free videos

Not much more to say.......

2008-06-03T21:28:00.003+12:00

..... than last time, but I thought it best I let you know I'm still alive.

The weather has turned on us, and as our logfire is broken, (and we are not fixing it because we are putting a heat pump in,) it is freezing at the moment. We do have the gas heater, but it just doesn't compare to the log fire.

I haven't done much scrapping, I did my page for the So You Think You Can Scrap competition, so when I can I will share that. I was pleasantly surprised how it came out, a little bit of Monique, but still lots of me..... I just couldn't shake some habits, like wanting colours to match, etc. Madly, I decided to pull all my layouts out of albums, and get tough with myself about finishing them, so I can put them back in, in order, so at the moment, chaos reigns in my little nook. I finally got hold of some Scenic Route, so will start work on my Australia pictures, so looking forward to that. I might actually get them done before we go back, loved it so much, we are planning to go back, hopefully soon, AND without the kids.

Queens birthday didn't bring much here, the weather was too cold to go out and about, and the one time we did we got caught out in the rain.

So........ with that thought, I'm going to go sort my photos for those pages, and put the washing out for tomorrow!

Not much to say.....

2008-05-21T16:00:00.003+12:00

except.......

yay............Survivor finale is on this Thursday. Now, we are only just catching up on the 2 episodes that screened while we were away, plus the one just gone, (because we wanted to catch up before we saw that), but I have seen the ads so do know who has gone. What I love is the CBS website does not show the winner on the front page anymore, even though they know in America, it's not spoiled for us. I would often go into the site to check something while watching the series and find out the winner ahead of time. An all girl final, yay for the girls! Do you watch, if so, who do you want to win?

Nope, got nothing to show you as far as layouts from Australia. I really want to use Scenic Route Grafton, so was just waiting for Andrea to catch up, having been not well, and will order that now, and then look at photos.

I love the layouts from this lovely lady, (she was so helpful answering my questions) and am really inspired by her work. After reading her recent blog post I went and bought a CK, which I haven't done for ages, but was quite pleased, both with the magazine itself, but also getting freebies, which included an older magazine, so effectively made them $5 each. I did that last year, waiting till June/July, and bought them, and got all the ones from earlier in the year. Anyway..... in the recent issue is some great articles on layouts with lots of pages, and album ideas, etc, so that got me going.

Other than that, I'm busy washing, washing, washing, and no, not catching up from our trip. We have a lovely visitor, who has decided my drawers make a good home. I have washed all my clothes, but haven't put them back, as the sneaky bu@@er has eluded me. I have used an old wooden style trap, as I like to just throw the whole thing away, but the mouse has been able to eat my peanut butter without setting it off, so I'm just about to set one of the peg style ones, (then hubby can empty it!)

Anyway, back to the washing!

2008-05-11T21:20:00.001+12:00

Aaaaargh, just about had them in order, then I tried to fix the last day, and now it has come up first, so read that last!

THURSDAY - HOME

2008-05-11T21:19:00.002+12:00

We wandered into the shops to spend the last of our Australian money, and to see the Doctor. I had thought I was getting the flu on Tuesday, but that seemed to clear, but now I had an ear ache. I have had problems with eczema in the ear canal in the past, so wasn't sure if it was that, or inner ear infection. After a long wait, and an expensive visit, I found out I had a fungal infection, so had some strong painkillers and more drops. This cause great problems on the flight home, as it is I usually have problems, but with a sore ear it was 5 times as bad. The flight was good, the kids good, and we got in to Auckland a little earlier, and stayed at the hotel again, before arriving home mid Friday afternoon.

Where to start???????

2008-05-11T21:08:00.002+12:00

I had intended to update a couple of times while away, but we just didn't get near a computer till the last couple of days. I was going to do it in one big post, but then had lots of problems with photos matching up, so I have done a post for each day, just skim through the photos if you wish, as it is more for my future references.

SUNDAY

We stayed the Saturday night in Auckland, as this meant we were only a step away from the airport, and gave us free car storage, and shuttle to the airport, so our holiday began with a 3.30am start. The hotel bed was hard, and I had only just got to sleep about 1am, so it turned into a very loooooooong day, especially with the time differences aswell.

The kids were great on the plane, and we had no problems getting to our 'apartment', only problem was we were early and they hadn't finished getting it ready, so we were given a spot to store our bags and went for a walk. We had some lunch, which was actually breakfast for everyone there, and had a wander down the beach. We made it back to our 'home' for the next few days, wow. It was nearly if not as big as our house. 3 bedrooms, ensuite, lovely open plan living area, full kitchen including dishwasher, and laundry. After getting sorted out, we jumped on a bus, and headed out to a new stadium to watch the Warriors play the local team. That was interesting being the odd ones out, but it was impressive to see how many Warriors fans there were there. Back to the apartment for fish and chips, and I think I was in bed, asleep at 8.30.

TUESDAY - Movie World

2008-05-11T21:07:00.002+12:00

Waiting at the Bus stop when another Matamata family walks up, have a quick chat to them, and then while at Movie World also see another family from Matamata, whose daughter goes to the Primary School with the boys.

MONDAY - White Water World

2008-05-11T21:03:00.002+12:00

Not a good start to our day. Our first ride was the Green Room, and I have to admit, it was horrible. Unfortunately we had just put sunblock on, and our hands were slippery, and the ride really required you to hold on tightly. It put Cameron off trying anything even slightly adventurous, although Braden did try a few more different rides

WEDNESDAY - Shopping

2008-05-11T21:00:00.002+12:00

We had hoped to head up the Coast to a Factory Outlet we had heard of, but got caught up in traffic due to a burst water pipe, so we jumped off the bus and went to the Wax Museum, which also included a tour of 'A torture chamber'. It covered the history of various tortures, fascinating, although the kids weren't impressed, and we weren't able to take photos. We were able to take photos of the wax models, and the kids liked that part, but I have to admit the rest was a bit too much for them.

THURSDAY - Brisbane

2008-05-11T20:54:00.004+12:00

Jon had an appointment up in Brisbane on the Friday, so we had hired a car and were going to head up to Australia Zoo on the Thursday, but by the time we got going and got the car, we knew it was going to be late, so he managed to squeeze an early appointment (7am) out of the guy, and we just took our time heading up the coast. While driving we spotted what looked like a great place to stop, so wandered around there, bought some clothes, and....... bumped into Vicki. Now, I knew Vicki was going to be there, but fancy meeting her there, and on their last day! Lucky she recognised us, 'cause I wouldn't have noticed her. We stopped in the middle of Brisbane somewhere, because we didn't have a map we were just following traffic, which was probably our first mistake, we didn't need to go anywhere near town to get to the airport. Finally found a motel, that was easier said than done, and caught the city cat into town to do some shopping and dinner. We obviously had no idea where we were going as there were no shops to be found, probably further out in the suburbs. We did find a small mall type place where we had some yummy dinner, but not much else. There were no movies on for the kids, so we just jumped back on the ferry and headed back to the motel.

FRIDAY - Australia Zoo

2008-05-11T20:53:00.004+12:00

Jon went out for his appointment, and then we headed up the coast to Australia Zoo. Have to say, while it was a pain to drive so far, it was a great experience. The place was beautiful, very, very clean, nice options for lunch, friendly staff, etc. We were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, and got a sneaky encounter with the koalas. It was right on closing time, so they had taken the signs down to say the koalas were resting (as we were to find out later), and there were no staff around so we just wandered over to them, and had some great interaction. Finally a staff member spotted us, and ushered us to the koala on 'display', who was half asleep, and very boring.

SATURDAY - Seaworld

2008-05-11T20:51:00.002+12:00

Cameron loved it here, he got to see sharks. Big ones. and stingrays. The shows involving the seals and the dolphins was neat, the photos don't do justice. No one else wanted a photo with the Sesame St gang, so I did!!!

SUNDAY - Mini putt, shops

2008-05-11T20:48:00.002+12:00

We had a quiet day, played Mini Putt, went to the shops, thats about it!

MONDAY - Dreamworld

2008-05-11T20:46:00.003+12:00

Labour Day in QLD. We ended up at Dreamworld, not the best decision, but wasn't too bad. One ride we waited for about 45 minutes to go on, but most were reasonably quick. Oh, no, hang on, after waiting 45 minutes for that ride, we went to go on the revolutionary Mick Doohan Motocoaster, which had a queue a mile long, so we didn't go on that, which was disappointing as it was definately something different. Dreamworld seemed quite bitsy, I thought it was OK, but because we had done all the others we probably could have passed on it, the reason we went was I had free passes using our FlyBuys. I did step out of my comfort zone, and go on the Tower of Terror, which was all over in about 10 seconds. 160 kph in seven seconds, 38 storeys high, 100 metre vertical free-fall backward. LOL

TUESDAY - Wet n Wild

2008-05-11T20:44:00.002+12:00

This was what I had been waiting for all holiday. Only problem was I was so tired by this stage, and was also getting a touch of the flu, so climbing all those stairs was really draining. A great place to spend the day, and if we lived there I could see us getting an annual pass. There was so much variety, although the tamer rides were separated by miles, which was a little frustrating trying to fit in some of our rides with the kids, walking forever.

In the evening we got a babysitter in, and went to the Casino. Unfortunately because I wasn't feeling so well, and was also tired, we came home early, which was fine as we weren't doing so well anyway!

WEDNESDAY - Movie World/WWW -again

2008-05-10T21:21:00.007+12:00

WEDNESDAY - Movieworld/WWW

We decided to make the most of our pass and go back for a second day to these 2 parks, meeting up with a Matamata couple on their honeymoon. The boys, including the big one, took an opportunity to get a photo with Batman. Jon went on the 2 rollercoasters the first visit, which was good as the Lethal Weapon one was down this day, but he did try the Batman Escape, which he then convinced me to try. It wasn't tooooo bad, although you should have seen the gouges in my hands from gripping so hard! We finally made it to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, which was beautiful.

MIA..........

2008-05-10T01:53:00.001+12:00

........but here's a preview!

Just trying out this remote blogging thing....

2008-04-26T11:35:00.005+12:00

.... not sure if it will work.

We are off this afternoon, staying the night in Auckland as we have an early flight and have to be at the airport at eeeek, 4.30am. This is Mr 7's effort, must say, he didn't do too bad, just had to throw in a couple of items of clothing, and take out a few unnecessary things.

Thanks for all your well wishes, advice, reminders, we are really looking forward to it.... I just wish the kids would stop messing up behind me!

ETA OMG, that was so easy, might have to do all my blogging that way!

Even longer.....

2008-04-22T11:42:00.005+12:00

..... between posts.

5 sleeps and counting. Not that I'm getting excited or anything, LOL. This week is all about doing jobs around the house, and outside. Usually all the boring jobs get left till I'm on school holiday, so these holidays they have to be accomplished in 1 week, plus packing. It's all the little jobs, making sure bills are set up to be paid, cancelling the paper,......... if you think of anything remind me will ya?

I haven't taken any photos lately, nothing exciting happening. I will share a couple of pages done, trying to use up some old supplies, especially letters. I don't think I've shown the first one, I just love it so wanted to share. I've taken to doing white backgrounds lately, certainly have lots of white cardstock from my refills.

The other 2 are fairly recent, ones I've actually finished, neither are 2 exciting, but hey, they are done, oh, and I was too lazy to take the Red Hot Birthday one out of the page protector, that's why there is a glare.

Holidays? Well, kids have not been too bad.... wish they would entertain themselves instead of asking for TV all the time. I mean, as is always said, we never watched that much TV when we were little. Trying to avoid doing anything costly, as obviously these holidays are going to cost a bit, but might take them to the pools this afternoon.

So long.....

2008-04-14T15:30:00.005+12:00

.... lots happening.

Been spending heaps of time playing with the Wishblade. Trying new things, different things, haven't cut much, but that's the good thing, you can play to your hearts content, and then just try something new.

Jon went fishing last weekend, his first real fishing trip. A real boys weekend away, apart from being sick the first day and night, I think he enjoyed himself, even came home with some snapper for us for dinner. The guys gutted them on the way back in on the boat, but we had to fillet it when he got home, so called our friend from down the road to show us, now we know!

This weekend just gone we mucked around home, the weather has started to close in, although it was nice for the Balloons over Waikato on Saturday. We were going, we weren't, we weren't, finally we did. Man, it was packed, far more people there than when they had it at the Lake. I think there were a lot of teenagers there more for the rides and the sideshows, of which there were not so many at the old venue.

Saturday was also our wedding anniversary, Jon jokingly informed me I had to wait a couple of weeks for my present (going to Australia), so when the fireworks started at the Balloons I told him I'd organised it especially for him! LOL.

Sunday we managed to go for a walk up town, just mucking around, and then visited FIL for his birthday.

Have been busy trying to sort a whole lot of paperwork out, you know everything seems to need to be renewed at the same time, warrants, insurances, etc as well as trying to get bits sorted out for Australia, less than 2 wee ks to go now.

Aaaargh......

2008-04-04T20:30:00.002+13:00

I wasn't going to post tonight, (not that you would miss me, LOL) as we are having family movie night (minus the Dad, because he is away for the weekend) but I need to vent.

Cold callers, phone marketers, surveys, whatever you call them, they annoy the cr@p outta me.

Tonight, right on dinner time the phone goes, and I stupidly answered it, thinking it might have been DH. After a huge pause, which is obvious why later, a lady with a terrible accent, don't know where from, starts talking. Now. she speaks good english, but with the accent, and the distance, (she's in Australia) she is very hard to hear and understand. She waffles on about this Affordable Holidays Vacation Club, which sounds good, but hey, as they say, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is! At one stage when I get interupted by one of the kids she asks to speak to one of them...... saying, we've just had a baby and I love kids. Whatever! I tell her politely that it is a very poor connection and they won't be able to hear her! After close to 10 minutes, she says, OK, I'll put you through to my supervisor, so I wait for him, before I lose it, and tell him how hard it is to hear him, that my dinner is burning and my kids are fighting. He is going to ring back at 2pm tomorrow, ha, when I'm not home.

By contrast, the phone just rang again, and, stupid me, answers it again. This time a lady says in a nice clear voice, this is blah blah, from blah blah company, I'm looking for a suitable person for a survey on blah blah, so I say, 'well, who do you want', and she says, 'female, 20 - 24', and I say 'no, sorry', and she says thanks, bye. Now how easy was that!

I was going to post a layout I did, ages ago, but after reading Trace's blog, was reminded about it, and don't think I've shown it here, but I don't have it already photographed and on my computer, so will add it tomorrow. She has some great info there, something I'm passionate about too, probably not as much as her obviously, but it's information that makes a huge difference when the kids get from her stage, at kindy, to mine as new entrants!

Thanks......

2008-03-26T21:07:00.003+13:00

...... for all your concerns and well wishes.

Yes, I did buy a Lotto ticket the next day, and we did win, not a huge amount, but the most we've won in 5 years, LOL. For those that asked, 'no of course I wasn't standing on the table' said in my best indignant voice, (I was leaning on it though, sssshh.)

Right just to catch up, a few photos from Whangamata, didn't get anything exciting, it was quite nice to not worry about the photos, and just enjoy the time.

Easter, well, we didn't do much, with having been at the beach last weekend, and then Jon is away for the next 4 weekends, and then it will be time for us to go to Australia, we decided to stay at home. We did wander to Hamilton for the day, did a spot of shopping, and had dinner at the Cock and Bull. Right that took so long to make that mosaic, so I'm just gonna put some photos up, flick past if you're not interested. (OK, so that mosaic is sooooooo small, not sure what the story is there)

Then on Sunday we had lunch with Jons mother, it was a nice relaxing afternoon, kids had a hunt, spot the big kid out there.

Now it's back to work!

Lucky.

2008-03-21T10:04:00.003+13:00

That's all I can say.

After this happening

and all I have to show for it is this

I have to say I'm lucky. I think it will be me buying the Lotto ticket tomorrow.

I must do this!

2008-03-19T19:19:00.001+13:00

OK, I have to do this, before I put it off any longer. I was waiting to finish a bit on a couple of pages, from our little get together at Debbies, so I could show those, but I keep forgetting to take photos, and then something comes up........ you know,........ so I'll just post now, and put the photos up later.

We, well, I can't speak for the others, but I had such a great time at Debbies, will definately plan to stay longer next time.

Not much exciting has been happening, just busy, Jon has been absolutely flat out at work, so trying to keep things going on the home front to make it all go a bit smoother.

We decided in the middle of last week we would head away for the weekend, so rented a friends bach at Whangamata (man, it's been 20 years since I've been there, I can't remember anything) and headed off there after work on Friday night. The kids didn't know anything about it, so got a nice surprise when we arrived just after 8pm, having stopped in Paeroa for dinner (the kids said 'Is this our surprise?')

We went for a wander around town on Saturday morning, had the most beautiful lunch at a place called Cafe Sandz (?), so if you are ever there I really recommend it, reasonably priced, quick and yummy food. Then we went to find the beach, and spent a couple of hours there, the weather wasn't the best, so we didn't swim, but the kids had fun. The waves were nothing like we've ever seen, great for boogie boarding and then it was home, and a siesta. We went up to the school to play cricket, home for dinner, and then a walk to the wharf, followed by a game of Trivial Pursuits.

We also bought a chess set, and taught ourselves to play, hopefully we've learned correctly, must find someone to check that with!

We headed into town to have a game of mini putt only to discover it wasn't open Sunday, which surprised us, as we thought they probably would have got lots of business. It was back to the beach where everyone had a swim as it was just unbelievably hot, before we nipped back to the bach to grab our food from the fridge and head home. Now, I feel like I need a holiday to recover!!

2008-03-06T20:34:00.004+13:00

OK, Ruth tagged me ages ago and I forgot about it, so here goes.

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.

B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.

C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 Years Ago: Mmmm, had been married a year, working as a Teacher Aide.... nothing too exciting

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Apart from the obvious, help out families, invest, etc..... splurge...... come on, it is a billion $, I 'm sure there will be some to spare.

3 of my bad habits: Procrastination, spending too much time on the computer, junk food

3 places I have lived: Haven't gone far, grew up in Putaruru (home of Pump water) spent 1 month in Hamilton crashed at an Aunties, then once we moved in together we crashed for 6 months at a friends place in Morrinsville, and now 15 years in Matamata.

5 jobs that I have had: Stable hand, (horses), picked onions, shop work, ran the local Toy Library, and Teacher Aide (actually started as one, and have done a full circle and am back there)

5 Things people don’t know about me: Mmmm, this could be letting too much info out. Thinking, thinking. I think I mentioned it one other time, but I hate yucky toenails, dirty or uncut, and like Ruth, have to have mine painted.

What else? I have a piece of pencil lead in my hand. Imagine 5 years old, running around with little sister, you get the story. Apparently lead is only poisonous if you ingest it, but sitting in your hand is not a biggie, LOL.

I'm addicted to Reality TV, Survivor, Amazing Race, Trading Spouses, Wife Swap, American Idol, So you think you can dance, The F Word, Apprentice, (haven't really got into Americas top model) and game shows.

I can't sleep in, once I'm awake, that's it I've got to get up, can't just lie there, and I'm an early bird, so usually awake early, even the weekend, damn it!

I have a small mouth, so as a child I had lots of visits to the dentist and hospital, and have 4 teeth less than most people, just to make room for them to fit, and Cameron will probably be the same.

There, done!

2008-03-02T21:15:00.003+13:00

As I said earlier, we had our monthly crop yesterday. I made this for my cousin, for her little girl, who turned 1 yesterday. I actually started it to give to her for her when she was born, but didn't like the 'album' I was making it in, so made this album yesterday, making the covers myself, and just using the 6x6 inserts from The Warehouse.

Only problem was I made a boo, and I'm gutted, just about cried. At the last moment I decided the dimensional magic the title, and once I started I realised it wasn't going to work, but it was one of those can't go back on mistakes. Then when I opened it to take the photos, it stuck (last minute = wasn't dry properly), so I've told her she can have it for a bit, and then I'll recover the pink bit.

It's nothing flash, but I really liked it, and was tempted to keep it!

The front page is a place to put a nice photo of her, and then they can put her full name, birthdate, weight etc, and then there is just a double page per month, really only a photo, and quite a bit of journalling space, so I hope to see it once she's filled it.

Yay, day 29.....

2008-03-02T19:46:00.003+13:00

..... don't know if I could keep this up for a whole year!

Eyetoy on PS! Borrowed from the neighbour, what great entertainment.

Good news on the knitting front, from the previous post, I thought it was going to be a long hard road, but after a couple of frustrating tries, putting it down, starting it, putting it down, picking it up again, he picked it up today and has done several rows with no mistakes, yay!

OK, I've lost a photo somewhere.........

2008-02-29T16:23:00.010+13:00

........ will have to check the other camera when hubby comes home.

OK, first up, a favourite, 3/4 pants, cotton, so comfy, I have 3 pairs, and wear them everywhere, I'm a bit like Sharon, so not into clothes shopping.

Cameron has been doing lots of french knitting lately, and came home with a knitting book the other day, so we borrowed needles, and I've been teaching him the basics, from what I can remember, but knitting is like riding a bike, you don't forget.

We've stepped up the jobs the kids have to do around the house, they were just taking things a little for granted, so Cameron did a super job folding the towels yesterday, very pleased with it.

Afternoon tea at our house, kids are hungry hungry, especially Wednesday when they come home on the walking school bus, so toasted sammies were the order that day.

Right, first Saturday of the month tomorrow, so off scrapping. Hope to make a small album for my cousins little girl who was 1 yesterday, and then we will go up there for a little party on Sunday afternoon, better go get some jobs done before that.

Day 22, 23, & 24

2008-02-24T14:08:00.011+13:00

Catch up, again!

Homemade Pizza's, chicken and apricot, well, these haven't got apricot 'cause the kids made them and they don't like it, but the one I made for myself had apricot...... mmmm.

OK, a very random photo. Favourite in our house, and very hard to find. We love this multigrain bread from Quality Bakers, but for some reason they only seem to get 1 tray of it in at the supermarket, so I have to time it to get it when it's on special, and I stock up.

I'm in loooooove! I got a Wishblade for my birthday! OK, so first I love my husband for buying it for me, but I love my Wishblade. First it was a mission to get it going, (thanks to Andrea for getting it here in time for me to play on the weekend, and to Jenny for helping me out aswell) it had the wrong cable, got that sorted, sweet. Then the second disk wouldn't load, so I could only do basic tasks, until I realised, duh! that I was trying to load the Mac version, so once I got the right disk in, I was away.

Here is my first project, which in hindsight wasn't a good one to start with. It is a dingbat, which I have made into several pieces to reassemble. I got good at doing a general cut, then got a bit more adventurous, trying to take out some of the cut lines etc, which I managed to do OK with the yellow, but now I've gone back to do blue bits to fill in and I can't remember how I did it. So I will finish off here, and go have another play!

Day 19, 20 & 21......

2008-02-21T15:58:00.004+13:00

Wow, busy busy, hadn't realised how long since I posted my photos.

Thanks for all the comments, I guess I just have to bite the bullet and be the meanie.

I talked to hubby, and we've come to an agreement about what we both want, that way we can provide a united front when it comes to disagreements about afternoon routine.

As for photos, nothing too exciting,

I am getting a bit annoyed with the weather, OK, yes we were asking for rain, but I wish it would either rain, or not. That is why my washing is on the clothes rack, then when I get up in the morning if it's fine I stick it out on the deck, if not, it just sits inside the ranchslider and gets pretty dry in there anyway.

2 photos from the garden. As I said before I don't do gardening, but these are looking pretty good in my garden at the moment.

Braden likes to plant things, so this year we are trying watermelon. Apparently they are quite hard to grow, so we will have to see what happens. I had all but given up, as I hadn't seen any action, and they were supposed to be ready in 14/16 weeks, and we must be getting close, however upon further inspection I found a dozen of these little guys, so there is hope yet.

Major vent here & Day 18

2008-02-19T15:45:00.006+13:00

Aaaargh, why do I always come across as such a meanie.

We need to have routine in our house after school, as far as homework and jobs are concerned, otherwise they just don't happen.

Yet....... all the other kids in the neighbourhood seem to be out and about all afternoon, one has to wonder when they have dinner, do homework, etc. This photo is an example, of the afternoon outside our house. Funnily enough we have all boys in the street, every single family is all boys, or only children, oh, and there are 3 boys missing.

Some are still out and about at 8pm, when on earth do they do homework. Last night mine were in bed, and asleep by 8, admittedly one had had a sleeping tablet, but the other was so knackered he crashed straight away, and they slept soundly through till 7am. Knowing they need to be settled earlyish, they need to come in early, yet I look the meanie when others are still playing.

What do you do, regarding homework? Make them do it before they go out to play, (and I'm not talking about 'playdates' where they go home after school with a friend and the mother, they're different), homework before TV, or let them relax and have some TV time first, homework after dinner, tell me your afternoon.

Now, I know there is no magic answer, and I know you are going to say, 'do what is right for you', but I'd just be interested to hear what your children do after school.

Day 15, 16, & 17

2008-02-17T18:52:00.005+13:00

Gosh, where have the last couple of days gone.

On Friday we lost one of our guinea pigs, so even though it is a bit morbid, here is my pic for Friday. My 7 year old was quite upset, and made this little plaque.

It was quite 'cute'. When I asked if he wanted say goodbye in the hole, or leave her in the box, he said he wanted to say goodbye in the box. He said his goodbyes, I tipped her in the hole and filled it in. Then he came to me, very sad, and said that he'd wanted to keep her in the box (forever was what he was thinking, LOL).

Next up, Saturday we had Cameron's birthday party. His birthday is late December, but as all his friends are away on holiday, we postponed it, so had a 'shark' party. The party went well, the kids are now at an age where they can entertain themselves, and not make too much mess. As they are getting past the classic party games I had hired an extra set of buzzers, so we could have a big "Buzz quiz". As most of the kids had this at home (it was very new and exciting to us) they weren't too impressed, and said they didn't want to play. However I set it up for those who wanted to, and all but one ended up playing, and even playing a couple of games, lots of fun.

Last night I had a mega tidy up in my scrap area, purged lots of stuff to sell/give away/throw, and re-sorted what was left.

Today I spent a little time making some 6x6 pages for this cause, these were so easy, there are 10 pages here, only took about 4 pages of cardstock, and a piece of patterned paper, which were all in my pile to give away, but hopefully these nice bright simple pages will do the kids photos justice. I know we have a similar charity here in the form of making an album for a child, but I found this to be something much easier to do, and would quite happily do it again if it is found there is a cause in NZ. As they don't have to be ready for another few weeks, I will definately do some more.

Thanks so much for the comments on my canvas, I think my hubby liked it, I wasn't there when he opened it, but he did say he loved it, so I'll have to take his word. The fact that he hasn't bought it home, means it must be displayed at work, which makes me happy. The title, has special meaning to me. When we first started going together, he wrote me a love letter, and thats how he signed it, so we often use it when appropriate.

Day 14........

2008-02-14T14:41:00.002+13:00

..... as posted about last night, I finished it! I was working on it literally as he walked in the door, threw it in the cupboard behind me when he got into the room, then whipped it out again while he was in the shower.

He left early for Auckland, hopefully back mid afternoon, so I have wrapped it, and gone down and left it on his desk at work. After work tonight he is away to golf, so I don't want him to go the whole day thinking I've forgotten him!

Me, well, we don't normally do Valentines pressies, but I am fortunate to be getting a Wishblade for my birthday, so I said that would count for Valentines for the next couple of years aswell, LOL.

Day 13.......

2008-02-13T21:42:00.002+13:00

... and I'm working away furiously, trying to finish a canvas for tomorrow. Yes, I know, it's the night before, why haven't I done it before now, but that's me, 'last minute minnie'.... so on that note I'll leave you with a treat my hubby just came home with and go work on the canvas while he is in the shower

Day 12......

2008-02-12T20:29:00.000+13:00

Just got beaten in a round of Trivial Pursuits!!! We played the original version while we were at the beach, so wanted to buy one of our own, but decided to go for the Pop Culture one, which is far more entertaining, (especially 'cause I suck at geography and history), and there are even some questions the kids can answer. Lots of family fun, we team up, one adult with one kid, makes it lots of laughs, and we are very competitive!

Day 11

2008-02-11T20:09:00.000+13:00

Yes, it's been a busy few days, and I'm feeling very tired at the moment, but I think there is more to it than school. I'm going to stop drinking Coke Zero, and see if that will have any effect, as I heard aspartame can do it to you, so will try that for a bit and see if it helps.

Speaking of school, the kids have gone back, they seem to be happy with their class/teacher. Braden would be happy whoever he got, he is such a happy go lucky kid, I'm thankful, because Cameron can certainly make up for it. He does seem happy with his class, and I'm quite happy with his teacher. I've already been to speak to her, and she seemed genuinely interested, asked questions, and was very approachable, so that's a great start.

I've had a couple of questions about the frames I used in a couple of my photos. I refused to pay all that money for Photoshop, just 'cause I wanted some cool edges, so I found this program, "Professor franklin's instant photo effects", it's pretty basic, but that's all I wanted. I think you will be able to download it here

So, to finish........ meet Arthur. Arthur is the culmination of weekly magazines, Funny Bones. We are now receiving the skin to put on, but I really want to sit down with the kids and look at the insides first, as it's quite difficult to put together, and once I do the skin we won't be pulling it apart all the time.

Day 10..........

2008-02-11T13:39:00.000+13:00

A favourite.

Sorry, too tired to blog properly, will get back to it once this school stuff is settled.

Day 9 ........

2008-02-09T21:31:00.000+13:00

Yay, I finally caught up.... day 9 posted on DAY 9.

Bowling, a favourite past time of ours.

Except today. Our first lane broke down so we got moved, then our second lane played up a bit.

Day 8....

2008-02-09T12:40:00.000+13:00

Homemade spaghetti...... mmmm

Day 7.......

2008-02-08T16:05:00.000+13:00

Yay, all done. I actually had twice as many as this, and ran out of time before school started to get them all finished, so sent Cameron's off to school with him, just so that he was sorted, otherwise he gets flustered, and Braden bought his home for me to do.

Day 6......

2008-02-07T19:22:00.001+13:00

(Day 7 will come soon, promise)

We only just got our PS this Christmas, so we are only just discovering all these cool things that everyone is familiar with already, Buzz being one of them. We borrowed this, but will have to see what happens for birthdays coming up. The best part, once the kids are in bed, it's all on! Jon and I are very competitive, so we have great fun with it too!

... Day 5

2008-02-07T19:19:00.000+13:00

I don't seem to have much of a green thumb, but am impressed at the pots of colour on my back doorstep, I guess because they are right there I am reminded to water them.

Day 2,3,.....&4

2008-02-04T09:10:00.000+13:00

Flat out couple of days, nothing exciting, .....

Went to our local crop on Saturday... did absolutely nothing, as usual. Well, thats not true, 2 almost finished pages, but in 10 hours!?!?!?

Umm, that's about it. Oh, yesterday, spur of the moment we went to Baywave in Tauranga, and had fish and chips at the park.

Today I caught up with a couple of jobs at school before I officially start back on Thursday, which I'm not looking forward too. Well, I am looking forward to going back, but number 1 son is adamant he is not going back to school..... we'll deal with that one on Thursday.

29 photos

2008-02-02T09:10:00.001+13:00

I've looked several times at doing the 365 photo a day challenge, and knew I could never do it, but I think I can do 29, as challenged over at Janine's blog.

So here's #1.

We've been eating heaps off the BBQ lately. Now, we've owned our BBQ for about 5 years, but only ever used it when we had heaps of people, but since we've been to the beach, and used it there every night, we've been using it at home, and trying different things.

Sketches

2008-01-26T11:41:00.000+13:00

Haven't been too inspired to scrap at the moment, so am enjoying the sketches that are being thrown around the place, here, here, and here.

I've also been eyeing up the sketches and great work done over at the Fiskars blog, so have added their blinkie to my sidebar.

This is a layout I did, based on a sketch from here, very plain, miscalculated the space I had left, to add something along the bottom of the journalling, but then again, I'm not fussed, it's done and I'm happy.

No kids =

2008-01-23T17:26:00.000+13:00

An afternoon of Everybody Loves Raymond on DVD

Trying to scrap

And later tonight.......

Saw II &

Saw III

(a year ago that last part would have never happened, but we watched Saw, almost accidentally, and now want to see the rest)

Matarangi.......

2008-01-20T21:45:00.000+13:00

........A review in photos

A great place to stay, 5 bedrooms, (but only 1 toilet!)

Lots of room for friends to visit

Water fights with the kids across the road

Toasting marshmallows

Sandcastles

'Real fish' and chips

Banana boat

Board games

Learning to play poker

Iceblocks

Time to read and do puzzles

Driving Creek Railway

Cold drinks on hot days

BBQ at the back door

Waiau Water park

Sleeping in......

......... and unfortunately, unpacking when you get home!

Finally.......

2008-01-10T23:24:00.000+13:00

......... one of the reasons I've been reading lots of books, like the one in the previous post, is we have been working towards something for the last year, and wonder how our eldest will cope/behave when we go to .........

........ Australia in April!!!!!!

Yay!

We booked our tickets online tonight, eeeeek, talk about a harrowing ordeal, especially having to log out, go fix something with our Airpoints, log back in, and re enter all the info...... and then have to do it again, aaaargh. Anyway, it's done, just to book accomodation tomorrow with Travel Agent SIL, and then wait.

It was supposed to be Jon and I, going to Fiji, for our 10th Wedding Anniversary, (which incidentally was April last year, not this year) which I am still sad about missing, but am also looking forward to a great family trip.

We were very fortunate to have accumulated enough airpoints to pay for our flights, so that was a huge saving to start with, just have to really restrict what we spend our money on in the next few months.

I'm so excited!!!!!!!!

A book recommendation

2008-01-09T13:35:00.000+13:00

I really recommend this book for anyone. I've read quite a few recently, in an effort to gain some understanding, but this one really tops them all. Now, don't be mislead, this book is just not for families with difficulties, I think every single family would get something from this book.

What I've found with lots of books is they waffle on about this study and that study, and this result and.......... and you get to the end of the book, and think hmmmm what DID I get from that. This book is full of practical suggestions, ideas, theories, that are very relevant. It is Australian, so it is very similar to our lifestyle, as I often find American or British books seem 'distant'(for want of a better word).

And, the best part, it's very readable, very enjoyable.

Please, if you do read come back and tell me what you thought, and what ideas you have implemented after reading it.

Annual Auckland Zoo Trip

2007-12-31T23:50:00.000+13:00

Every year we go to the Auckland Zoo, between Christmas and New Year. It was a tradition we started way back when, and it's been good, but we thought we might vary it each year. The only problem is I have a set of photo frames, and each year we take a photo of the boys on the concrete elephant, and I still need a couple of slots filled, so until next year at least, we will go again.

Camerons Birthday fell on the Sunday we were away, so we took a 'mini party' with us. He got up and got excited when he saw the cake and balloons, but hadn't realised that under the paper was a present. He had been eyeing up the Mars Mission Set in the lead up to Christmas, so he was pretty pleased to get it.

I happened to be surfing the Trade Me message boards one night last week, and came upon a thread titled "Free tickets to Alvin and the Chipmunks". I clicked it expecting it to be filled with replies, but no, no one had replied, so I jumped in, and then thought it through. We had been talking about staying in Auckland for a night to do a couple of things, so we decided to do it that weekend. We thought we'd do the zoo, and pick up the tickets from the lady (who had won them on the radio station, and didn't have kids) on the Saturday, as we had to be at the theatre at 11am, so there was no way we could have driven from home, over to the North Shore and be at the theatre by then.

We didn't tell the kids what we were doing, just that it was a surprise that we had organised for Camerons birthday. On the way over we saw a billboard and the kids said 'we want to see that", and we replied, 'well, it doesn't come out until Jan 1st, so we'll have to see'. Right up until we were seated, and even when the film started they hadn't realised what they were going to see. Because the freebies were supplied by More FM they were in the theatre, with giveaways. The chick said, 'my birthday is on Christmas Day, and it stinks I have to share presents, does anyone else have a birthday around Christmas Day,' so I jumped up and pointed to Cameron. He got a little pack of goodies, t-shirt, watch, keychain, stickers, so he was pleased, but wouldn't get a photo with the characters.

While looking for something different to do we came across the Amazing Maize Maze, so decided we would do that on our way home on Sunday. It was great fun, although we were probably a bit analytical about it, and came out quite quick. We didn't need help to get out, nor did we need to open our map. We also didn't get to go over the bridge, so Braden and I went back in to go to the bridge, but it was pretty hot by then so we were just happy to get into the shade after that.

Christmas Day (before the year ends)

2007-12-31T22:55:00.000+13:00

Christmas Day was quite casual for us, we spent the day with MIL, and 2 x SIL's, at MIL place. We did presents, we kept this one (PS2) till last, as we knew everything else would be forgotten. MIL had done everything for lunch, which was turkey, ham, hot vege, etc, then trifle, cheesecake and fruit salad. Just enough. Then we did the traditional crackers, Braden got a $20 win, so he's excited. Unfortunately the weather turned ick, and we couldn't go try out the cricket set at the school, so we just settled in for the afternoon, had a snooze, played with the toys, and wandered home around 8pm.

Boxing Day, my family came to our place. It was nice that all the siblings could be here, not all the partners, as they were working, but it was a nice casual, just sitting around, BBQ lunch, chilling out.

After lunch, I introduced a new toy. Wow, we had so much fun with this, not only the kids, hubby did too, and all only $2. It was a mega slingshot, really needing 3 people to operate it, (although Jon decided if you were tall enough you could do it yourself) We originally started using it horizontally, but not wanting to break any windows, we decided it was more fun to watch the balloons go up and come down.

As you will see in the photos, this is what the kids were up to in my previous post.

A bit of fun

2007-12-27T08:19:00.000+13:00

Before I share more photos and fun from Christmas Day and Boxing I have a small RAK to someone who can guess what has just happened in this photo.

Questions? Ask away?

2007-12-23T23:43:00.000+13:00

Well, here we are......... 2 sleeps till Christmas Day. I'm not feeling terribly inspired this year, not sure what it is...... I haven't even done any baking to speak of, Braden asked if we could make cookies tomorrow, so might have to do that to bring out some Christmas cheer. We are off to spend Christmas Day with Jon's family, just us, his mother and 2 sisters so a reasonably quiet day, with no preparations needed from my as she likes to do it all her way!

Ooops, I tell a lie, we, being the kids and I, made 100 or so little Christmas puds, out of the Mallowpuffs (we've all seen them by now), and gave them out to their class, (and I gave them to the class I have worked with mostly this year), so that was a marathon effort, but the kids did a good job.

Being Jon's first day of holiday, we had a sleep in, and after brunch we spent the afternoon in Hamilton, just a family day out, and doing a few bits and pieces. We caught up with GMIL (Grandmother in law) who we will not see on Christmas Day, and got a couple of things that couldn't be found in town here.

We then went to the movies, saw Fred Claus, it was OK, not hilarious, but the kids loved it. We then had some dinner and wandered out to The Base, had a wander around the Warehouse, Briscoes, and unfortunately just missed Mitre 10 Mega.

When we got home it was the night for us to drive around and look at the lights in town, mostly the same ones as last year....... a couple of new ones..... one cul-de-sac had a Santa giving out lollipops, and even his dog had lights on him. We've done our house up this year, so got a few ideas of what else/different we could do next year. Then tomorrow night we will walk the streets nearby, before heading off to bed in anticipation!

Jon is test driving the kids Playstation, "just to make sure it works", LOL, and I'm about to wrap the last couple of presents. Tomorrow will be a little bit of housework, and mow the lawns, (as my family will come to us on Boxing Day) and then we will do child swapping with a friend so she can get a few last minute groceries, and then just relax.

Hope this finds you all happy and healthy, and we'll see you in the New Year.

How can you not smile and feel happy watching this?

2007-12-18T13:07:00.000+13:00

Things moving along.....

2007-12-12T23:12:00.000+13:00

... the days are going quickly but I'm not worried. We are spending Christmas Day with MIL, and 2x SIL's, a very traditional Christmas as MIL is from America, but that is all organised. Boxing Day I have invited all my family here, and that will be very casual, come and go as you pleased type thing, so am not worried about that.

We decided last year to really get into doing the house up with lights, but said we would start earlier this year, to be ready. Well, about 2 weeks ago we put several strands up, but didn't get any further, so yesterday I spent the day up and down the ladder, hammering, tieing, to finish off. Unfortunately we don't have much of the section/house facing forward so can't do too much more. I put the tree up, and the kids decorated, mmmmmmm, oh well, that's what it's all about!

One week, one day, left of school. We are really going to enjoy the weekend and Monday, as Jon has usually worked right up until Christmas Eve, so it will be nice to go visit a couple of family members we won't see on Christmas/Boxing Day, and might go see the new movie Fred Clause.

Braden learned to ride a 2 wheeler about 3 years ago, when Cameron got a new bike, and Braden got the smaller bike. However, sometime after that he must have had a fall, or a scare, and refused to get back on it, so I relented and put the trainer wheels back on. He rode it like that for a while, until I said I was taking the training wheels off again, and he has not got back on it since....... until last week. I was watching him across the road at a neighbours place, trying his bike, and actually succeeding. Now, we can't keep the little blighter home, he's off down the road all the time, but is pretty good, as he has end points where he can ride to and from.

Right, been on a school walk today, absolutley knackered, (and the child I was looking after had jandals on which gave him blisters, so it was a long tedious walk), so I'm going to put my feet up, relax, watch a half hour comedy, before getting dinner.

Waihi

2007-12-01T08:19:00.000+13:00

Sunday

After doing a couple of hours in the garden, and basically having nothing to show for, because our garden has got so over grown, I decided we would go for a family afternoon, so we cleaned up and headed over Waihi way. A year ago we went to do the Karangahake Gorge Tunnel walk, but parked in the wrong carpark, and started at the wrong place. Anyway, on our way home that day, we found the right place, and said we'd be back.

It was a great day, but forgot hats for the kids, eek, so lathered them up in sunblock and headed off.

The best part for me, was stopping by the river, and Jon teaching the boys how to skim stones, that was neat to see.

After getting back to the car (man that tunnel is deceiving, it really doesn't look that long, you can see the end, yet it is 1100m long, and takes ages to walk, and COLD) we let the kids change and have a play in the river.

We then came back through Tauranga, and grabbed pizza's and took them down to the playground for a while, before heading home, everyone quite tired.

2007-11-25T22:35:00.000+13:00

Well....... the dinner the other night didn't quite go as it should have, although it did go as I expected. Cameron took one look at it, and said 'I'm not eating that', which he didn't, Braden chowed it down, declaring 'this is the yummiest, mum'.

Anyway, more new food experiences. Sushi. Because I am organising a Sushi Day at school, for lunch, I thought it best I try it myself. I bought some home for the kids and I. I expected Cameron to screw up his nose, and Braden to like it, however it was the other way round, Braden took one bite and spat it out, and Cameron devoured it, and wanted more. We have only tried Teriyaki Chicken (rolls), and also tried chicken teriyaki and sweet and sour chicken nigiri-zushi's, but they just ate the topping and didn't eat the rice. Now Cameron asks everyday if we can have it, and when is it Sushi Day at school.

Check it out

2007-11-21T20:50:00.000+13:00

New things......

2007-11-21T16:33:00.000+13:00

....... food related.

After seeing Carl Barron when we went to Wellington earlier this year, we said we would make an effort to see other comedy shows, so when this chick rocked into town last week, we jumped at the chance to go see her.

When we turned up, and saw a cooking show set up, we weren't sure what to expect. Aaah, we were pleasantly surprised. She cooked a meal from her past, from her Dide,(grandad) and spoke as she was cooking, lots of memories, jokes, cooking tips, all thrown in together. While dinner was simmering she wandered into the crowd, still doing her show, and joking. Dinner was served, and she came and sat at our table, and had a great chat with us.

Now, if you haven't seen her, you must have an open mind, she is quite crass, which was fine by me, I wasn't sure how others would find her (my boss, the principal of the school was there, and after chatting to her the next morning about the show, I was quite surprised how open minded she is)

Anyhoooo......... when I saw what was being served for dinner, I thought, 'there is no way Jon is going to eat that'. Well.... wasn't I surprised, he did, he enjoyed it, and....... we are having it for dinner tonight.

Now it is nothing special, just a stew really, but since being together, we have never had stews of any sort, I love them, Jon's not so keen.

I shall update tomorrow how it all goes, I'm not sure how the kids will react, as they too have not had stews, but I am hoping this time, with Dad there modelling, it should go smoothly!

Aaaargh.

2007-11-19T22:22:00.000+13:00

Ok, so, now, not only do I have to deal with sleeping issues, we have creepy crawlies here, ........ and impetigo (school sores)(and I suppose it's not helping that Cameron is not sleeping well). As if I don't have enough to deal with at the moment.

A quick call into the chemist, who confirmed we'd need to see the doc, turned into a few minutes longer, but I was so pleasantly surprised to go in to make an appointment, to be told I could get in right away, so from the time we left school, till getting home, it was only about 10 -15 minutes, not too much longer than usual.

A busy afternoon, swimming (Cameron was a bit disappointed at not swimming for a couple of days), an unexpected trip home to change pants (Cameron 'cause he'd been paddling and got wet, and Braden 'cause they'd ripped while getting changed, and wouldn't stay up) and then back to cricket.

Tomorrow, athletics, and then nothing for the rest of the week, yay!!!

More sleeping issues....

2007-11-18T20:58:00.000+13:00

........ this time with Cameron.

OK, Cameron has always gone to sleep late, woken late!

So what is it with the last 3 mornings, awake at the sparrows fart! About half 6 (which is not early for some people I know, but for us it is) on Friday, then Saturday, according to the TV guide, 'cause that's the only way I could tell what time he got up, it was about 5.45.

This morning I hear noises, notice that it's still dark out, and go in search of the early morning riser. He has got his lazyboy ready, with blanket, remotes etc, until I send him back to bed, and look at the clock, and see that it is 5am. WHAT! I say to myself, 5am, what on earth is this kid thinking.

The good thing is, tonight, after coming home from Hamilton (took my Dad out to dinner for his birthday on Tuesday) he dozed on the way home, something he hasn't done since he was 2 years old, and has gone off to bed quite easily.

We'll see what tomorrow brings?!?!?!

Absolutely knackered!

2007-11-12T21:06:00.000+13:00

Not me, him

Braden was already pretty worn out from last week.

Jon and I had a work function on Saturday night, so the boys stayed with my sister, always full on, then we rushed home on Sunday to get Braden to a birthday party at Baywave in Tauranga. Then today, a busy day at school, and a bit of a swim after swimming lessons registration. I came into the lounge at 4.30 to find this. Actually I couldn't find him, and it was too quiet, so I went looking, I even walked past him.

Hopefully he has a good sleep tonight, as it was like pulling teeth to get them moving this morning. Athletics tomorrow night, and then nothing for the rest of the week so hopefully we can have a few quiet days.

Waiting........

2007-11-08T14:01:00.000+13:00

OK, so the mail turns up, and there is one addressed to hubby. I look at it, put it to the side, and open the others, then notice word that catches my eye. I text Jon, asking him to ring me when he can, so I can ask him if it's OK to open it.

I'm pottering around, the phone rings........ my friend organising things for this afternoon.

I start pottering again, a knock at the door........ Jehovah's Witnesses (and sorry if I offend anyone, but that is just the lowest for me, at least they didn't have any kids with them today!)

I carry on, the phone rings again.......... Ma'am, it's so and so from Barnadoes, we are doing our annual blah, blah, blah, I politely tell me him we have already chosen which charities we are going to support.

I'm still waiting!

EDITED to add:

I really thought it might have been a speed camera ticket (which = scrapbook shopping money, LOL), but no..... it was just a reminder about the ticket he got in October (and before you ask, yes, I've already been shopping with that, bought me some new perfume)

Fireworks

2007-11-04T21:36:00.000+13:00

When Jon worked at his old work we always had a Social Club Guy Fawkes get together, however now that he no longer works there we were at a loss what to do. We didn't want to just let off a few in our backyard, and there was nothing happening in Matamata, so after talking with a friend she told us about the event in Morrinsville, so we headed over there for the night.

It was a good one, probably a little more expensive than I would have liked, however because I had been to our Monthly Scrapbooking crop I wasn't organised with things to take.

We let the kids have a turn on the jeep rides, and then settled down with friends for some late dinner, nibbles, and fun, listening to the entertainment (including an interesting Freddie Mercury!)

At 9, they let the fireworks start, some really neat ones. They had also lit the bonfire about half an hour before hand, but it wasn't until we were leaving at 10 that it really got going.

When we got out to the carpark we went off to the side and let the kids finish off our sparklers from last year, and we finally got home at 11pm

That week went fast........

2007-10-29T19:01:00.000+13:00

...... I guess that's what happens when there is a long weekend.

I had an appointment with a specialist on Tuesday (anyone want to share their stories about prolapses, feel free to email me)....... mmmm........ really don't know what I want to be doing regarding that, so it's all up in the air at the moment.

The rest of the week just went quite fast, nothing exciting happened.

Athletics started. Enough said about that at the moment, I have a very miserable 8 year old, who is getting very despondent about his results.

The fine weather finally graced us with it's presence, so yay for getting in the garden, spraying for prickle weed, etc.

Sunday it was Jon's grandmothers birthday, so we all met for lunch, and for a long time, just about everyone was there, 1 daughter in the States wasn't there, and 1 grand-daughter in Christchurch, so we got some cool photos. Pleased to get this one, 4 generations.

Anyway, those lovely goodies that I ordered turned up, and I had plans to work with them tonight, but as it's 9.30, I doubt I'll get much done tonight (had a crappy sleep last night, and ended up on the couch for a bit), as I'll head off to bed soon.

Jon lets me know he may be off to Fiji on Wednesday, 'Sorry I say, I can't get organised that quickly', LOL. It will only be a couple of days, more of an emergency trip, so will be back for the weekend, where we hope to go to BayPark speedway. In the past we have enjoyed a Guy Fawkes get together with the Social Club at Jon's work, but his new place of employment doesn't have much of a social club, so we thought we'd go to BayPark for their fireworks.

I was about to say I'm off to organise getting some photos printed, but have to say, I don't like DigitalMax new site for uploading. Anyone else had a try, there seems to be lots of steps, backtracking, all for so called improvements.

North of Auckland Harbour Bridge

2007-10-22T21:28:00.000+13:00

OK, so this week we decided to head over the Harbour Bridge (because we always stay on this side) for a day out.

We had intended to go to Snow Planet, but were unsure if it was going to be suitable, especially at that price. We also intended to have a look at Auckland Luge, and do a bit of shopping. Bendon Outlets had half price of Bendon Sports Bra, and as my favourite fits that criteria, that was always going to be a stop.

We got to Snow Planet, and after going in to have a look, lots of discussion with various people, (and I even rung them the night before) we decided it probably was suitable for just playing around, it seemed a bit serious, all skiers and snowboarders. The kids were a little disappointed, but when we headed to the Luge they were happier. It was absolutely freezing, and unfortunately 1 of the sweatshirts had got wet on the way up there, so after much shuffling of clothes to get everyone warm we headed off for our turn.

A little different set up than Rotorua. You grab your luge, (we each took one kid the first time) get in line, get your ticket 'clicked' and head up the Travelator. This was seriously the most uncomfortableist thing I have been on! Get to the top, and choose 1 of 3 tracks, so we went with the Scenic route first, pretty good. You stay in your luge if you are going again, so we joined the queue again, Cameron jumped in one of his own this time, and we went again. We had 3 turns, then I let the others go again, while I took some video/photos.

Comparisons between the 2? A lot cheaper at Auckland, as you don't have to pay to go in the Gondola aswell, but price per ride is the same (actually cheaper inAuckland if you become a member). Tracks, probably about the same...... I felt the tracks in Rotorua were possibly a little steeper and more thrilling. Auckland has only been open a few weeks, so has some cosmetic work to be done, and could be great when finished. The ride back up, the points definately go to Rotorua on that one, sorry Auckland, very uncomfortable.

Then..... to soften the blow from missing out on Snow Planet we went to the GoCarts/Bumper Boats next door. Unfortunately the kids were too little to go by themselves, and too big to go with us, so we headed back towards town, intending to go shopping in Albany, but got completely lost, and after driving for a bit ended up at Wairau Park. We had a game of 10 Pin (and I won this time, for a change, we are big on 10 Pin, my hubby plays quite well), and I had a nosey at Spotlight.

We then headed to Botany, and we going to let the kids have a turn on the Bungy Tramp, but it wasn't operating that day, and they were a few minutes too late to make a Sand Picture at the Sand Wizard place, so we went to get some dinner, and tried Nando's for the first time. Cameron refused to order anything, Braden had a wrap, which was too hot for him, although he ate quite a bit of it. I thought it was OK there, but probably wouldn't go back, although if I did, I wouldn't order the burger with double chicken, the 'normal' would have been fine. It was quite expensive with what we got, but I think it was the sides that made it expensive ($3.70 for 2 half corn on cobs!!!)

After a wander around the Warehouse (which would have to be one of the messiest I've ever seen) we headed home, with 2 tired very kids (and 2 adults!) sleeping in late this morning!

I is for investment..........

2007-10-20T18:44:00.000+13:00

............

OK. First I was going to mow the lawn, and it starts raining, so I thought I'd come and post here.

Secondly, we are going to Auckland tomorrow, and the 2 shops I wanted to go to are not going to be open, so I did a bit of online shopping, bought some of this in 4 styles, plus some new BG papers and more chipboard letters to add to my 'collection.'

I'll have to make the most of this, as we are going to have to watch spending a bit more, now that we've.......

......... invested. Yep, we've bought a rental property in Hamilton, these aren't the exact pictures, but they come from another unit the same. This is also a 'single' unit, ours is a 'double', so there is a double garage, and the lounge/master bedroom are a little bigger. The only problem is, now I've seen it, I don't want to rent it out, I wanna live there!!!

Anyway, had a great cyber crop at SBD last night, had a good run of luck, winning a couple of games, so I am looking forward to lots of mail this week.

Layouts

2007-10-15T16:38:00.000+13:00

As I have decided not enter the SBD Design Team Call, it means I can now share a couple of layouts that I was thinking of using.
I haven't done much scrapping lately, but looking back over my blog entries for this year, I've seen quite a few photos that I uploaded here, but haven't had printed, so will have to get onto that.

Well, it's turned quite cold and yucky here, so I've just lit the fire, will turn it down just to keep the chill away, and better go find something for dinner.

2007-10-12T18:27:00.000+13:00

Thanks to Trina, here is a funny for you!

H is for holidays.........

2007-10-09T16:37:00.000+13:00

........ and where did they go?

I had all these great intentions to do catch up housework, you know 1 room a day, completely tidy it..... what did I do? Nothing, none, zip, zilch, nada...... and worst of all, I didn't do anything else. I really don't know where the days went. We went on 2 day trips, and you can't really count one of them because it was the first weekend. In the second week we went to Auckland for the day, just to Chipmunks, and Mini Putt, and then dinner...... Cock and Bull at Botany, it was absolutely packed, but the boys were actually reasonably well behaved. We also went to my nephews birthday, and one day I had to go and pick up my boys so I spent the day at my sisters, but that was about it.