14/1/06 - Brent's turn

Brent had his turn next & he got to drive & use the shovel too. Scott caught some really great photos showing the shovel working just to prove to me that the boys got to really drive it.

After the excitement of the digger was over they went back to the uncle's place & had a well earned drink of OJ. 

14/1/06 con'td

Alright so the Aukland trip is going to be a bit disjointed on the blog but I got excited about having done some layout.

We went out to the North Shore to visit with one of Scott's uncles. He happens to own a business that requires some diggers from time to time & as you know from previously my boys love diggers!

When they were offered the chance to go and sit in one there was no way there refused & in fact just wanted to go right then, no time a drink & a chat first. I didn't go & watch but Scott went with the boys & took the photos for me. James was first up & he not even got to sit in the digger he got to drive it & use the shovel!  

My latest & favourite layout

This layout was rather time consuming, trying to work out which 20 odd photos to use.

In the end I used 14 photos & square punched a lot of them into 2 inch squares. There is a date on the bottom of the layout but the scanner decided not to scan that part in. 

Layout of Mo

This layout is of Mo in Wellington, looking a much slimer cat than she is now. 

Scrapbooking Fool

I have been on a bit of a scrapping binge recently. There are some Becky Higgins Sketch challenges posted on http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ these have totally inspired me to get back to scrapping.

I have to say that when my computer crashed I sort of lost my impetus to scrap. I had most of my digital photos backed up but now I have to get out the discs & reload them to scrap them. There is however, really no reason not to scrap the oodles & oodles of real physical photos that are sitting in my craft room. The BH Challenges have got me actually scrapping photos from prior to going digital & I feel so good about putting those photos in a good place rather than in leaving them in the sleeves they come from the printers in.

So without further ado here are the layouts I have completed so far this year. 

The Plane ride - 14/1/06

Saturday morning started with a lot of excitement. The boys were itching to get to Auckland & they couldn't get there fast enough. Most of the morning was spent answering the question "when.... ?" The first question was "When is nana going to get here?" Nana had kindly volunteered to take us to the airport. We had arranged for her to come about 9 o'clockish to pick us all up. The first question was asked at 7:30. It was then asked about every 1/4 of an hour from that time on. Nana arrived early & took us to the airport.

Even that didn't stop the when question because the next one was "When are we getting on the plane?" We said goodbye to nana & went up the escalator & into the Qantas lounge. Our flight was called & we were on the plane. We were seated right near the front in seats 2 A B C D. I was the lucky person who got to sit in 2D, so I was able to sit back relax & watch Kath & Kim for the inflight entertainment. I have no idea if Scott got asked "When will we get to Auckland?" but my guess is that he did. We had a great flight & the boys got to see Mt Tarankai from their window. James picked out immediately that it was a volcano & thought he was about to come in to land at Auckland. Not too long after we did get to land in Auckland but I had the most sore right ear with the apin going all the way down into my neck. The pain was excruiating. The heat as we stepped out the door of the plane was amazing, I was quite surprised & it is very reminiscient of getting off the plane in Brisbane.

We picked up our luggage & then had to get the rental car. Of course while we were waiting on Scott to fill out the paper work the inevitable question of "When will we see Robin & Phyllis?" popped up. So that question was repeated quite often as Scott & I negotiated our way to the Unicorn Motel on Shelly Beach Road. It wasn't too hard to find & actually the traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Robin, Phyllis, Erin, Neil & Danja had already been staying at the motel for a few days so they had some lunch all prepared for us which was fantastic as we didn't bring any with us. The boys went & talked to Phyllis & Robin while Scott & I got our motel room & started to move the bags into it.

I have to say that the motel room wasn't great. It was a downstairs room & very dark, 2/3 of the lights in the main room didn't go & there was a huge wet spot in the middle of the floor. The room, because it had been closed up, was horribly musty & very hot but at least it was somewhere to sleep in the meantime.

We organised ourselves a bit & then went upstairs to talk to Robin & Phyllis & have our lunch. We organised for everyone to meet up at Scott's grandfathers place for dinner, before which we would go out & see one of Scott's uncles who lives on the North Shore. 

Smily Sucker!

Yes this smily sucker is mine. What does it say about my life when I can tell you I am excited about this household appliance. There is something about it that just makes me smile & I couldn't wait to use it. I love it!

We only bought a new vacuum towards the end of last year but it has already died. It's head broke & then after getting duct taped back together it never really worked properly again. I got it out to do the weekly vacuum this morning & I had had enough. I know that I only told Scott this morning that this year is to be a year of consolidation but how much frustration is a year of consolidation worth? I couldn't get the head to work at all this morning so I was in my car to get a new one. No I didn't go to Briscoes this time I decided I would try a commercial kind of vacuum, so I went to Christchurch Cleaning Supplies.

They had a whole row of these wee suckers smiling at me & who am I to say "no" to such a cute smile? Yes the marketing department for Numatic had caught me hook, line & sinker. There were even coloured ones that had names written on them like George (the one I would have loved because he did shampooing too) & Henry (for the real commercial cleaners). This wee man didn't have a name & I will wait & see what my boys call him.

As soon as I got him home I put him to work & he smiled through it all, fancy that smiling while doing housework & I bet if there had been a camera weilding person in my house they would have seen a smile on my face too. I love his extra long power cord. Now I only have to unplug & move it once to get all the house vacuumed. With my other vacuum it was almost every room that I had to plug it into. He is super sucky & cat hair got sucked up in an instant. And his smile, irresistable.

Now let's see if he does the same magic on my boys & they will vacuum their own rooms. Oh well a girl has to dream. 

Brent's Room

Brent was one of the lucky people to get a new bedroom out of the renovation. We saw the curtains in Bunnings & he wouldn't let me leave without them. That was fine with me because I had said that he could choose the colours for his bedroom. He then decided that he would like colours on his wall to match his curtains. He wanted green, orange & blue stripes. Unfortunately the painter was not going to paint strips so he had to choose just one colour. He choose the green, green is his favourite colour after all LOL.
So his room is bright green (in fact Dulux's Kelly Green) with alien curtains. 

Tile pattern & bathroom colour

It occurred to me that you really can't see the pattern of the tile or the true colour of the paint. Here is a photo of myself reflected in the mirror. The listello is blue waves with a terracotta flower at the top. The tiler was very surprised that we didn't choose blue to go on the walls but was amazed at how good the green looked with this listello. There is a small border of blue & green triangles at the top of the listello which is where I go the green colour from. 

My Favourite Room

Well you might think that my craft room would be my favourite place but you would be wrong. At the moment my new bathroom is my favourite place.

The walls have been painted Dulux Dublin Green & we have a tiled floor as well as a tiled shower. The tiles on the floor should have heating but at the moment it is one of the teething problems we have. The other teething problem in the bathrom is that the faucet in the bath leaks when the water is turned on.

When you walk in there is the tiled shower on your right & on your left is a huge mirror & the handbasin, vanity. The handbasin is porcelean so no more cracked handbasin for me. The bath is also porcelain but I can't tell you how good it is to sit in it without siting on cracks because I can't take a bath yet (the faucet problem).

I absolutely love the fact that this bathroom does not smell of pee & that I can lock the door. It is just bliss to have such privacy!

All the hassles of the last few months are going to be worth it once I can sit in my bubble bath & soak with the door locked. Ahhh B L I S S ! 

Back again, kind of

Oh dear, you might be wondering what happened to my blogging.

I really got bogged down in the middle of December. I find December such a hard month at the best of times. I have 3 birthdays & then Christmas in December. Add Scott going to Melbourne for a week, the builders here for the whole time until Christmas & things just got a bit much.

I also had a bit of a computer problem as well. If it was any other month I probably would have acted more quickly, but i had too much to do & too little time to do it so the computer slowing down to snails pace was hardly an issue. Unfortunately when I tried to turn it on again on Boxing Day it became a major issue. The poor thing wouldn't start & I was beside myself. I want to firsly give myself a pat on the back for having backed up all photos that were on my hard drive until the middle of November. Unfortunately I was so busy I missed doing the December back up so all photos between middle of November & 24th December have been lost for the mean time. We might be able to recover these if the Dell man can get my hard drive up & working. This is a timely reminder to all of you to please remember to back up your files regularly. What is the point of a digital camera if you don't back up all your photos. At least a film camera you have negatives to go back to.

Unfortunately I haven't many photos to post of the renovations but they are basically complete. The only things not complete are the wardrobe organisers in both Brent's & our room & the glass that goes over the top of the patio.

The builders left on the 22nd December giving me a day to try & clean up everything before Robin & Phyllis arrived. It was hard work because that building dust went into every room, even the furthest away rooms.

Brent loves his new room with the colour he chose (Kelly Green) to match his curtains. Phyllis told me that Scott used to have a room the same colour when he was a boy. It goes without saying that I love my bedroom, but most of all I love my own "No boys allowed" bathroom. It is just bliss to have a locking door & not have to worry about standing in pee on the floor. Yes my boys still miss, when will they ever aim straight? They won't be good marksmen in the future.

I will try to get back in the habit of at least a weekly update from now on.