It's Open

 Yay, the fourth store in the chain opened today. Andy has been working major hours lately helping with the setup of the shop over at Lynmall and today was the grand opening. We went over at lunchtime to take some pics and check it all out. A very cool looking store and completely packed with people while we were there. I can't believe that even though Lynmall was the first ever shopping mall in New Zealand I have never been there before. Probably I didn't really miss much because it seemed very much the same as every other mall, but there you go, a mall in Auckland that I didn't even know existed!

I don't think I have linked the New Zealand version of Howards Storage World website before. This was the project that took a lot of Andy's time shortly after we shifted down. I have also been involved with it in the uploading of products and taking pics of different things that catch my eye when I am in the stores and then loading them onto the website too. An ongoing job but one that I am very much enjoying.

Chicken and Tomato Casserole

Finally I am getting to add this recipe to my blog. Janine shared a delicious sounding butter chicken soup the other day and challenged everyone to share their favourite recipes. I have been dabbling with lots of recipes lately and have been trawling the Weight Watchers site checking out their ideas. We had this chicken and tomato casserole tonight and the boys cleaned up the whole lot - woohoo we will be having it again!

I made quite a few adaptations as it was supposed to be cooked in the oven but I ran out of time and cooked it in my huge frypan.

8 skinless chicken breasts - wow, I only used 4
1 onion, roughly chopped
110g lean bacon chopped
110g mushrooms - the boys don't like mushrooms so I used pitted olives instead
1 T tomato puree - oops never read that properly, I used the whole can
300ml chicken stock - again I used the whole 500ml carton

Brown the chicken, add the onions and bacons and brown these too. Add the chicken stock and tomato puree and bring to the boil. I drained the jar of olives now and added them too. I left the lid off and let it simmer about 40mins until it reduced quite a bit.

We had this with white rice and silverbeet. Gosh reading the recipe I left out heaps of stuff and added a heap of stuff that I wasn't supposed to. Oh well, if you are interested they also added 2 bay leaves and salt and pepper.

Human Nature

is a very funny thing. One never knows how one will react in a given set of circumstances until it happens. Sometimes you get a little premonition of how something will go and when it plays out you can recall how you imagined you would react. Often the forethought fails to take into account all the emotion that happens in real life and the reaction is quite different.

It is very interesting how other people react to these events too and how many or few people come to assist when a trap has been set and sprung. A study into this would be rather interesting, especially if you could work out how to change the events once they start rolling as first imagined.

You got that loud enough?

No, do you want it louder?

This was the very first conversation when we picked Tommy up from school yesterday. He asked the first question and I asked the second! "Oh Mum, it is so embarrassing to have to come to a car where your Mum has the stereo going hard out".

Oops sorry Tommy, didn't realise you were going through "that" stage. At least I was listening to a current hit and one of my current faves, Teenagers by My Chemical Romance. Hey, it could just as easily have been Mika and then I would have understood the embarrassment. My 9year old baby is turning into an old man!

I have been playing

and updating my blog. I was getting sick of looking at the lake and figured this sunset pic that I took from our deck a week or so ago would make for a different scene. Now to work out how to get it centred. I think that will be a job for tomorrow though because my brain isn't working now.

Motivation and Exercise

I knew this, I really did, but I was having a convenient memory lapse. I had a huge list of jobs that I needed to get done today and one of them of was using the walker as it was intended to be used. Getting changed into my exercise clothes was the key I think, because after dropping the boys at school I was motivated to go walking - that and I was too darn cold to sit down without layering up a bit. I only walked for 10minutes but 5 minutes of that was running so feeling pretty good about myself because I don't run!

One of the jobs I had to do was to complete my circle journal and pass it on to the next person. I have been having nightmares over this and the pressure of having to produce an amazing work of art. You see I have to pass my cj onto Nic. You know the Nic whose work is so stunning that she has just had a book of it published! Awesome book by the way and you can get your own copy from the link on Nic's blog. I can't tell you the relief I felt when she had a look and was very complimentary - hey maybe I can get a book of my own too - yeah right! Maybe I will just line up for comedy position instead :-)

I got tagged

Thanks Tracy :-)

My roommate and I once: Drank lots of wine and told lots of lies.

Never in my life have I: gone up the sky tower.

High school was : lots of fun hanging with my mates, although I wish I had studied more.

When I’m nervous : I trip over my words.

My hair : needs a cut.

When I was 5 : I got my first bike and rode down the hall with my trainer wheels on.

When I turn my head left : The window overlooking the paddocks - it has finally stopped raining :-)

I should be : supervising homework.

By this time next year : We will be living in our own home again.

My favorite aunt is : Not sure really, probably Mum's sister.

I have a hard time understanding : People who have to pull into the middle of the road to make a left turn.

You know I like you if : I hassle you

My ideal breakfast is : Coffee.

If you visit my home town : you’ll get lots of sunshine and warm days - hmm I think I need a trip back there.

If you spend the night at my house : You will be wined and dined to excess and then crash out.

My Favorite blonde is : Me

My favorite brunette is : Andy

The animal I would like to see flying besides birds : Riiiight!

I shouldn’t have been : snacking all morning on those potato chips.

Last night I: Stayed up too late trying to catch up on emails and blogs after being away for 3 days.

A better name for me would be : Dreamer

I’ve been told I look like : No-one.

IF I could have any car, it would be: I love the Chevvy Tahoe but it is too big for me on NZ roads, hmm, maybe we need to live in America.

Tagging Ruth.

Wild and Woolly

Wow what an exciting 24hours of weather! I can't believe the amount of garbage we have had lately. We had two powercuts late afternoon yesterday and got to use the candles that I bought specially. It was such a soothing light with the candles that I kind of regret that power didn't stay off longer.

I jumped to completely the wrong conclusions too when I had just lit the candle for the boys and told them not to muck about near it and gone back to the kitchen to get another one when I heard a huge crash and immediately started yelling at them for being idiots. Ooops, one of the concrete tiles had blown off the roof and smashed on the deck outside the lounge. We woke this morning to find at least one more smashed tile, the olive tree uprooted and half a gum tree fallen down.

We heard from the tenants in our place in Whangarei and one of the avocado trees had given way. We headed up there today as we were supposed to be staying over at the lakes with some friends. Very weird driving down our driveway and not being able to go in the house. It seems that the avocado wasn't the only tree not to make it with 3 of our aka akas snapped in half too. A bit of a clean up to do.

We tried to make it over to Dargaville but got turned back as one of the bridges was completely under water. We figured we would try and get there via the Brynderwyns and then we heard that they were expecting the town to flood tonight. We thought better of that plan and headed back home again. We might try again tomorrow.

Ice skating Fun

 Wow, awesome way to fill in some time over the school holidays. Took the boys over to Botany Downs this afternoon for the late session of ice skating. I had been umming and ahhing all day and finally decided to have a go too. So pleased I did. I had a ball and I haven't seen the boys so excited and happy and enjoying each others company so much for a long time. My legs now ache all over and I know exactly where every part of my calf muscle is attached to my leg! According to the boys I skated like a "nana" (no offense Mum if you are reading this), but "I" didn't fall over and my butt isn't all bruised! I demonstrated the windmill manoeuvre I managed to perfect to Andy tonight and discovered sore arms too, so I guess I did that a fair bit too. And now I am off to soak in the spa pool!

Educational games in the holidays has to be a really bad invention doesn't it? We have got one going at the moment and the boys are lining up to do their times tables.

When I went to see Nick's teacher the other day for parent teacher interviews she suggested playing card games such as last card and snap to encourage the learning of the times tables and practising addition and subtraction.

I picked up a deck of cards and a bag of fudge and now the boys are lining up to "do their tables". We are working through the deck and they are multiplying every card by whatever table we are working on. I was going to give the King as a free shot, but Tommy suggested it could be 13 so we are going up to 13. I left the Jokers in and whenever one of them comes up I get to give them a kiss (I think that is the best part, although the boys call this torture!). Once the deck of cards is finished they get a piece of fudge.

I love bribery and corruption and it is even better when it works!

Open Letter

to the absolute "tosser" who nicked our caravan.

Yes, we do still want it.

Yes, we want all the stuff in it that is still there from 6months of summer use.

Yes, we are pissed off.

Yes, the boys are devastated.

No, we can't remember everything that was in it, although the list keeps growing

No, we weren't planning to have to buy a new van before next summer.

Bring it back or at least give us back all the contents that we can't replace, such as the souvenir caps and t-shirts and all our windbreaker jackets.

Scrapcamp

 Back from an awesome weekend with lots of talking and laughing and not too much scrapping. But I did get to meet some new friends and catching up with others I haven't seen since CC06! We had a challenge pack, I love getting these it is always such an eyeopener to see what everyone else does with the same product as you. My layout is the first in this block. Next up is the class we did with Chris Millar. It was supposed to have flowers on it but I figured that was just a bit much for me.

Last two pics are taken during a bit of a break from scrapping. Do you like the pic of the door? There were really two of us in that pic, but the collage chopped Tracy and me off, you can just see my hand. We were having a nice quite drink of bubbles out of paper cups from McDonalds - Nice! We also went for a wander over to the lake for a bit of fresh air, looks like Ruth and I are dancing, nah just dodging all the puddles. Yep scrapcamp was once again a very wet affair. I remembered to pack my gumboots this time, but didn't think I would need them for the walk to the lake - wrong!

So, so much fun and so cool to travel and room with Tracy and Ruth, lots of laughter and stories. Thanks to Yolande and Lianne for all your efforts and organising it really is a wonderful event and I can't wait until next year, even with the rain.