More truck and dinner

  The finished job on the new exhaust system. It sounds pretty close to what is loaded on the Corsa site
 One very happy boy who has just got back from test driving the new sounds! The interior looks black in this pic, but is really chocolate brown.
 Kathryn and Mike took us up to Orange Hills restaurant for dinner. The aim was to get there in time to watch the sunset. We were sat up high in the hills round a fire pit sharing a few drinks and a few nibbles taking in the amazing views. These pics really don't do it justice.
 Kathryn and Mike sharing a geeky moment.

Truck Pics

 The very shiny blingy grill! It is huge!
  Mike coming in from the very first test drive.
 Off with the old exhaust and on with the new.
 

Kathryn and I were the support crew and gave lots of moral support while we enjoyed the sunshine.

Hi from Los Angeles

Yay, we made it! A very uneventful flight which reminded us how much we hate long distance flying and trying to sleep. We are just loving being here. We landed to gorgeous blue skies with no clouds and it is like that again today with temps around the 25 mark. Just perfect. So cool to catch up with everyone and have a few laughs. Kathryn came and picked us up in the new truck from the airport. Man that is some machine. I will show you some pics later, Andy has just popped up the road and the camera is in the truck.

We really just cruised yesterday and reacquainted ourselves with a few stores. We forgot to bring a converter with us so we could plug in and recharge all our electrical bits, so that was number one on the list of things to get hold of. Tried a few stores yesterday but it wasn't until this morning we were able to find one. Found a new electrical store which was twice the size of our old favourite - BestBuys. We spent ages in there just looking.

First up this morning Andy, Grant and Mike got stuck in and ripped off the old exhaust system and replaced it with the new corsa one. Man, I thought the truck sounded pretty good anyway, but you should hear it now - we sure won't be going anywhere and just sneaking in.

Once this was all installed there were quite a few test runs to make sure they could hear the difference properly and then we headed out for lunch and a touch of shopping at the mall. I managed to get into the handbag shop and scored myself a gorgeous handbag. We had Mike, Grant and his two boys with us too and they were not interested in looking at what Kathryn and I wanted to, so didn't get too much of a chance to have a decent look round.

Off our for dinner now so will post some pics a bit later.

4.5 more sleeps

I am getting excited now - it seems like we have been waiting for ages but the time is now getting really close. On Friday night Andy and I fly out to Los Angeles for 2weeks all by ourselves! The boys are a bit bummed that they aren't coming too, but they are very excited about having Nana come to stay and look after them. I think Nana is a little apprehensive and quite excited too.

We are taking a laptop with us so we can keep in touch with everyone and hopefully I will even get keen about updating my blog a bit more regularly. Lots to do, because we have left most things till the last minute because it all seemed too far away before. My mind is working overtime and that is why I am up again in the middle of the night.

Birthday Boy

 My baby is 10!! Where on earth did all those years go? I am sure I can remember not so very long ago tearing my hair out with 3 young boys hooning round our house! Happy Birthday Tommy and sorry I am a week late posting this pic of you at your party.

Summer is on the way

 
Wow, I really think summer might be starting to make its presence felt. We woke up to a glorious day on Saturday and decided to make the run up the Lakes with the new caravan. I was having a major worry session about how we were going to get the van off the section and on to the road and also how we would park it on our site. All that worry was needless as it turned out, everything worked like clockwork and we pulled it all off without a hitch. One of the highlights for me of the weekend was watching Andy and Alistair working together to get the van level on the site. It was so cool to see Ali down doing all the bits that Andy normally does and Andy standing back and watching. I loved seeing the pride that Andy felt watching this boy of ours growing up.

Mother Guilt

Oh man Nick is laying this on me really thick at the moment! Thursday at school he was playing soccer and fell over, a whole bunch of guys landed on top of him. He was whinging about a sore arm and I told him to get hard!

This morning he was racing with Tommy to try and get to Andy's scorched almonds first and fell over landing on his arm again. He put on a huge hollywood which we figured was to distract Tommy.

After discussion with DH we decided that maybe he might be a bit sore and we better take him to the doctor. Turns out he has a fracture to his arm just above the wrist. Ooops! The doctor was most surprised that a boy of 12 could break his arm by falling on it and suggested we really up his calcium intake. Suits me because if Nick had his way all he would eat would be bread!

He now has a back slab plaster and we go back in 10days for a full cast. Oh dear, I am sure I get the worst mother award for today now.

I asked him a little later in the day whether he had forgiven me yet, and he gave me a huge grin and said yes, but I bet I will hear about this many times in the years to come. I know I would definitely be repeating it, if my mother did that to me!

More digi stuff from me

 Yeah these are really quite fun to do. The first layout was done earlier this week and again a very easy page with just adding pics to it. Jessica really has made the whole learning process very simple with layouts pretty much completed and just teaching bits at a time.

This second layout I have just finished now at midnight! Starting to dabble in brushes now and the learning curve goes up a bit more, or maybe it is just too late at night and my brain is going to sleep. I know that I am definitely going to sleep now.
 

Subject Choices

Tonight Ali and I sat down and went through his choices of subjects for next year. We have been working towards this for a few weeks now investigating different career options and which subjects will give him the most options. They have to take English, Maths and Science and then they have a choice of 3 other subjects for 5th form. His current choices are French and Graphics. He has not enjoyed French since we shifted - something to do with the teacher, so has decided to drop that subject, pick up Economics and continue with Graphics. The way he is leaning at the moment he is looking at two career paths in marketing and/or sales, and these two subjects seem to keep the most doors open for him. His third option is PE. Can't believe that isn't a standard part of the curriculum still.

His next task for the evening was to sell his choice of subjects to Andy and prove that he had done the research to back his decision. Very scary to think that Ali will be in the 5th form next year. Really starts making me wonder where on earth all those years have gone, especially those ones with the annoying toddler that I never thought would finish.

Digital is Cool

 Woohoo, my first ever digital layout! I enrolled in an online course that Jessica Sprague is doing. Her instructions and videos are so clear that anyone can learn to create these layouts, really enjoying what she is showing us. I am also slowly starting to learn a whole heap more about Photoshop Elements and what it can do. Amazing piece of software.

Nick went for a sleepover at his mates place on Saturday - I don't think they slept a wink all night. When I went to pick him up he was only in the car about 2minutes before he fell asleep. We also had Tommy's rugby prizegiving which was a heck of a lot bigger than I was expecting. Turned out to be the whole of the junior boys division with about 200people there and the bar open and all. My first experience with rugby club prizegivings.

Bookworms.

I have become a right bookworm again just lately. I was lent a copy of The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. Wow, that lady can really write a good book. I have been sitting up reading before I head to bed at night and several nights this week time has run away with me and before I know it, midnight is here. I finished the book this morning and can't wait to get into the next books in the series. I picked up a copy of Tully also by Paullina the other day, but I think I want to save that for a bit.

Lucky for me I have a couple of scrapping magazines to read instead.

Final game of rugby

for Tommy was this morning in the pouring rain. Unfortunately he has been suffering with a cold for the last few days and his throat was too sore to go this morning. Not sure if it really was because it hasn't been sore for the rest of the day but I sure didn't want to stand in the rain so I didn't query him too much on that one. Oh well, I am sure he will still enjoy prizegiving next Sunday just as much.

We have managed to find another caravan to replace the one that was stolen and signed up for that during the week. It is off getting an awning made now ready to take up residence at the Lake in the next school holidays. Really can't believe that it is almost time for summer again - mind you with the weather lately I am definitely ready for summer.

I think we need to change the water filters in the house, it takes forever to have a shower lately as the water trickles out of the shower head. Strange that they need replacing already our filters at the old place were replaced annually. I suppose we only filtered our kitchen water though.

Gee don't I lead an exciting life - 10.30 on a Saturday night and I am blabbering on about water filters!! Man, I need some excitement.

I have a job!

Woohoo! I reckon this has to be my dream job - a bit of admin work, updating and uploading products to a website, parttime hours - 9.30 to 2.30 Monday to Thursday, great people to work and the icing on the cake is the wonderful products I get to work with. Yep I started work today at Scrapbook Studio in Mt Wellington. I enjoyed my day so much and couldn't believe it when it was time to come home. Very excited about going again tomorrow.

Very cool site this. Came across it tonight as I was surfing blogs and decided I had to have one of these.

Scrapping up a Storm.

 Wow, I think my scrapping drought has been broken and I have creating like crazy. Lots of challenges have certainly helped this creative burst. This first layout is created for the No 8 Wired blog and their current dare to create a layout that celebrates a real Kiwi saying.


 Next layout is one I created for a challenge at SBO which was set during the cybercrop held last Friday night. I really did enjoy that crop and that seems to have sparked my scrapping burst. This challenge was to scrap a layout about a name.

 

The final layout comes from another SBO challenge to scrap a layout in a different size that you haven't done before. I decided to try the currently popular 6x12 size and am very pleased I did. Loving that size and it is great when you have only pic that needs to go on a page.

Lots more to tell but my scrapping desk is calling my name and I gotta go :-)

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.

Need for Speed

Much hilarity in our house last night when DH opened his official looking mail to find a speed camera ticket addressed to him. He was freaking big time and then he looked at the registration plate of the car and it was mine!! OMG he was so relieved it wasn't for him and that I finally have my first ever speeding ticket! Woohoo 116km on the stretch of motorway between Drury and Papakura. The worst bit is the $120 to pay for this, right on the eve of Scrap Camp.

Yep Scrapcamp is this weekend down in Rotorua - I am getting so excited about this and really looking forward to it. My plan for today is to try and create some page kits so I don't have to take everything I own. I am getting a ride down with Tracy and Ruth.

Showing my Age

We were driving through the central city over the weekend and Andy glanced into the car next to us. That is Dean Lonergan he says. The boys sitting quietly for once in the back seat say "Who?"

I butt in and answer "You know, the everready battery guy" I get met by blank looks - who? Andy lets me down gently - not! and reminds me that he was probably the batter guy about 15years ago, before our guys were even thought of. Ooops!

Shopping Expeditions

I have had a new experience in shopping over the last 2 days. My cousin and her family have been up from Hawkes Bay while they farewelled their oldest daughter who is off to London on her OE. Bis sister gone and we were free to shop. Kate has just turned 18 and being let loose in the shopping malls of Auckland were heaven to her. I have been into so many shops that I haven't even seen before. What an experience shopping with a girl rather than boys! We looked at everything, then we tried on selected outfits and then we finally settled on something. Oh the walking we did in between all these times! So much fun though, I told Kate as she was leaving that she was welcome to come and stay any time she wanted to and we would hit the shops together.

I have been quietly chuckling away to myself tonight after Nick decided to make Andy a cup of tea. He brought the cup in and said to him you have to watch for the black things I don't know how to get rid of them! We use tea leaves in the teapot and Nick had forgotten to use the teapot and just spooned the tea directly into the cup. Andy's description was it was just like drinking miso soup with lots of tea! Too funny! I think tea making lessons will be happening in our house tomorrow.

Saturday Sports

 
 
 
Wow, did we have an excited Tommy this morning about to play his first game of rugby. We bought some boots for him during the week and since then we have the boots on, off, sprigs off and then on again, running up and down on the grass, cleaning the boots inside on the carpet in the lounge (he won't be doing that again) and even sleeping with them right next to his bed. He played pretty much the whole game today and was so excited when the team won by 6 tries to 5. I need to improve my rugby photo taking skills, I was too busy watching him having fun!

Nick played a great game of hockey too and even scored one of the 9 goals. A very good little team and I just love their uniform colours. Unfortunately Andy and Alistair were working in Hamilton again today so they missed seeing both boys play. They weren't too worried though because Nana came along and helped me cheer them on. Nick reckons Nana is his good luck charm now.

Headlines

I have recently changed my homepage to Stuff and when I logged on this morning I saw this headline "Girl calls for police help over messy room". How funny and what a great way to start my day. I wonder if that would encourage my boys to clean their rooms any more.

Ruth came round for coffee this morning, it was great to catch up and get the low down on what to do in Pukekohe. I have been trying to get the boys all into sports teams and Nick back into his guitar lessons. It is so hard trying to get into teams that are already full, but we have managed with Alistair and Nick who are both playing hockey.

Tommy had decided that he wanted to play rugby this year so we went last week for a weigh in. Tonight I rang the lady and found out what team he is in. Our Wednesdays are about to get very busy! Alistair finishes school at 2pm every Wednesday and we usually pick him up, then back in to get Nick at 3pm. Tommy will be practising at 5pm until 6.30. Nick starts his hockey practice at 7pm until 8.30. I guess we will eat in there somewhere!

Teacher Only Afternoon

 The primary and intermediate teachers had a stop work meeting one afternoon so I figured I would be a good mum and take the boys to the swimming pool so they had something interesting to do. I decided to take my camera with me and see what pics I could get. You can see how peeved Nick was with this idea. Tommy was just too excited to even notice the camera.

Later that afternoon I sat them down for a chat when I had finally had enough of the continual fighting that was going on. They were so grumpy with each other. Fortunately this didn't last too long especially when I pulled out the camera so I could get a pic of what a loving set of brothers they were. Huh, out of 35 pics I didn't get one decent one. Too bad, I will scrap the silly ones then :-)

Bernie & JP's Wedding

 We managed to get Mum and my sister to watch the boys overnight and run away up north for this wedding. So much fun to catch up with all our Lakes friends again after all that had been happening. We let our hair down big time, talked a whole lot, drank a whole lot, danced a whole lot and ate a whole lot. The next morning I was very much wishing that I hadn't imbibed quite so much in one of those things! We left the beautiful Hokianga Harbour and headed back to our house in Whangarei to do the lawns and have a catch up with Ruth. So nice to just be Andy and I with no children fighting in the back seat.

V8 Weekend

 Figured I would make a few posts just showing you what we have been up to since our shift to Pukekohe. The highlight of our first 2weeks was definitely the V8s being here. We trooped along on Friday for a real fun day with the kids and then again on Sunday. I got up all early and Andy dropped me at the track at 6.30 so we could be one of the first in and get a decent posse to view the racing. Got a great spot inside the track along the entry to pit lane. Certainly made for a much more enjoyable day having a really good view and our own little roped off area. Loved the pics of the kids on the fence especially the one of Jade and Georgia talking to each other.

Home Alone

Andy has taken the boys out to the boat show for the morning and left me at home - yay! I know I have been such a bad blogger - lots of reasons all of which are incredibly boring so I won't tell you any of them :-)

We are loving our new house and everyone has settled in really well at their new schools and jobs. Alistair and Nick have both signed up for hockey teams and both played their first games this last week - they both won so that was a good confidence boost for them. We took Tommy along for a weigh in at the local rugby club on Thursday and are just waiting to find out which team he will be in.

 
Aren't these flowers just beautiful, I love those bright orange gerbras! These are the flowers that my bloke gave me on my birthday - he still can't believe he got away so lightly. I don't know what he is on about, saying that I am hard to buy for. Um, I think the list is endless but flowers well that topped the lot. Unfortunately they don't look quite as fresh anymore which is why I figured I would share the pic now so I could see them again :-)

Do you remember the gerbras that used to be around when we were kids? Mum used to plant them and I didn't particularly like them back then. I am sure they weren't as big and meaty as these suckers are though. And the colours weren't as bright as what you can get now either. Maybe they have stuffed them all full of growth hormone or something - oh well, I still love gerbras :-)

Happy Birthday to my little sister who is going through a really hard time at the moment. Be strong girl, you have a huge support network and you will get to the other side with a bit of help from your friends. Hmm that sounds a bit Beatlesish really doesn't it. My mind is jumping from one thing to the next here maybe I need another glass of bubbles to settle things down a bit.

What a good idea.

Later

Happy Birthday

Yay, happy birthday to me :-)

My birthday present to me this moring was to buy the boys' lunches, yay, I hate making school lunches. With Andy being away we were going to postpone my birthday until Saturday, but I have just had a phone call from him and we are going to meet up in Auckland tonight. Yippee birthday wishes do come true :-)

I've been painting

and not even scrapbook painting. Ali's bedroom really needed a going after and it has since we shifted in and I took down the pelmets over the curtains, figured the walls were looking just a bit to shabby with the screw holes still showing. Anyway I moved all the furniture off 2 of the walls, washed them all down, filled the holes and painted 2 coats. As to why I decided to do that today when I am feeling like garbage with a cold anyway I have no idea.

Pantry Finds

 
Looking for a snack this morning I opened the pantry to find this, certainly not what I was expecting to find. Now I am left wondering who left them there and whether it was by accident, or if this is the new hiding place so that his brother's can't use them.

I feel sick

Sky TV sent me a little bag of Jaffas trying to get me to buy something - can't remember what. I have just eaten the whole thing and I don't even like jaffas!

On the move.

Yep, I have been really quiet over the last few weeks. We have had lots going on in our life since buying into this new business. Finally we made the decision that living apart was not what we wanted to do and finding a place to rent in Auckland is what we needed to do. Andy has been busy hunting out likely places and we have found a place - not really Auckland, but Pukekohe! Just heard this afternoon that the place we liked was ours if we wanted it.

We will finish up this term in Whangarei and shift in over the school holidays so the boys can start their new schools at the beginning of a term. Now the real work begins as we get packed and get this place into a state that we feel comfortable renting it out. Unfortunately we will be miles away from the Lakes, but with winter coming on, it will give us a chance to get used to our new surroundings and the Auckland traffic.

Weekends

 
What a great weekend, just perfect weather and so much fun catching up with DH again. The boys loved getting to cuddle up with their dad again. We decided to go and check out the Queen Mary while it was in port. Funnily enough so did the rest of Auckland, man what a nightmare that traffic is!

Sorry a very boring post, will try and make it a bit more interesting tomorrow night :-)

And today

the mulcher man came and chopped up all our large piles of clippings and made them into a huge mess all over the lawn. Lots of clippings for the gardens now. I think I might have to resort to more bribery to get them all raked up and distributed.

Ali has gone, off on his big adventure of his first waterski tournament that is not at his home club, and we aren't with him. Weird feelings really, but he is with Glen who will look out for him anyway. With a bit of luck the fact that we aren't there will mean he will have an even better tournament and ski really well.

We are meeting up with Andy and having the weekend together. I so can't wait to have a cuddle. Have a good weekend all.

Shelter Belts

 
Well I love living behind one, but man when you get them trimmed it is a freaking nightmare. We have a rock wall and garden down one whole length of the drive - about 100m and of course the trimmings are all over both of these. Unfortunatley we have to get the clippings off the garden and onto the grass so the mulching man can come and do his thing. I was outside this afternoon trying to clean up and only managed to get really peeved, hot and sweaty and about 10m cleaned up.

Time for a rethink of plan - bribery and corruption - yep it works a treat, the boys were in big time when the temptation of bucks was dangled in front of them. They worked so hard and with no fights either. Yay, they cooled with a water fight and I lay on the grass and took photos of the piles for the mulching man.

I got a sewing machine

 
Yay, now I can sew on my cardstock! OK, if you aren't a scrapper and are reading this then that will sound really sad. But, if you are a scrapper then you will completely understand why I am excited.

I was in Countdown yesterday and saw these machines for $39 and just couldn't resist. It operates on 4 batteries and weighs in at 2kg, perfect! Now all I gotta do is hide it from DH so he doesn't think I can now take up his jeans!

Scrapping to be done

Yay, I have done some scrapping for the first time since before Christmas. Ruth came round today and we spent a wonderful school day with no kids or interruptions and talked and laughed and caught up on all that has been happening. Ruth did lots of scrapping and completed 4 layouts, while I procrastinated lots and made up lots of excuses such as not having the perfect piece of paper. I had 2 circle journals that were sitting on my desk waiting to be done, and I finally got settled down and stuck into getting these done. Yippee, both completed and packaged up ready to go to the next contributor. One posted today and the second will go tomorrow. I don't think the mailbox would be big enough for both of these at once!

Changes

So many changes going on in our life at the moment and I really don't know where to start. We have bought into a new business, the New Zealand master franchise of Howards Storage World. All very exciting and very scary at the same time. The Head Office is based in Auckland which is making things very interesting for us being in Whangarei. We are not keen to shift back to Auckland so have decided to see how we get on with Andy commuting and spending 3-4nights a week in Auckland.

He spent his first night away last week and left today for his first full week. So far he is hating being away from the family. Obviously the fighting and boyish stuff doesn't get to him as much as it does me! His task this week is try and find an apartment so that at least he can leave his stuff there and not have to live out of a suitcase the whole time. It will also turn into a base for us when we want to head down for a shopping trip.

Learning new routines as a single parent is my big challenge for the next few weeks. So far today, I don't think I am doing very well. I headed to the lake to pull down Alistair's tent which he "forgot" to get down while he was there yesterday and needs to take away this weekend to a waterski tournament. By the time I got back from that and did the groceries for dinner and lunches tomorrow there is no time left and the boys are home already. Hopefully the rest of the week provides a chance to start some new routines.

Home.

Home again thank goodness! I love being away but being back in my own bed has to be the best thing. The last 10days of the school holidays were incredibly busy with our waterski club hosting the National Championships. We had 115 competitors from all round New Zealand and it was our job to feed and entertain them and their support crews for the duration. Lots of fun, lots of new friends to meet, lots of talking and lots of smiling, lots of serving in the bar and for me lots of collecting all the money and collating it all at the end. That bit is still happening!

The boys are back at school and very happy with their teachers and being back in routines. It didn't take the teachers too long to get the homework underway and they each came home with some on the first day back. Man, I hate homework and the stress of getting it done.

Happy Holidays!!

Yeah, it is finally here, school has finished, the boys have just come home from a week at ski school where they learned so much, the presents are all bought and wrapped, the cards sent and we are nearly ready to take off.

Hope you all have a very safe and happy holiday period - catch you all in the New Year.

Washed the car

Wrapped the presents that I have on hand - need to buy a couple more tomorrow at the Farmers sale

Made my Christmas cards - now to write in them and post them

Made some Xmas letters

Got my haircut

Thought about going grocery shopping

Thought about doing some housework

Thought about updating my blog - I guess one out of three ain't bad. 

Back home again

And man was it good sleeping in my own bed again on Sunday night. We had a wonderful time away without the boys, drove heaps of kms and enjoyed the peaceful trip. By night 3 though I was ready to be home really missing the boys. Mum really enjoyed her time with the boys too and everything went really well for them which was a huge relief as she is keen to come and do that again some time.

We took Mum with us to the lake on Friday night and she loved seeing what the boys can do on the water. It was very windy and quite cold so not ideal conditions for her, but I think she really enjoyed that too. Worst thing was with it being so cold you had to sit in the sun to keep warm so we have all come home with a decent dose of sun and wind burn and very tired. A few early nights required I think.