Tuesday last day of July

This is the last card for July but it won't be the last card, I really do enjoy making these I'll work out my storage of these later.

The worst part of having the boys at school must be the homework they do. Tonight everything was going well with Brent's homework while James' hit the fan. James was not concentrating or even trying to read his book that he was supposed to. I told him to rethink his attitude while I put the potatoes in the oven to bake & then we would try again. The second time was worse than the first so I said he could go to his room & have a rest, which made him throw a tantrum & slam his door.

Meanwhile Brent seemed to be doing his homework nicely. Then when it was done I asked if I could look at it, well it was not done at all. His current affairs was all of 3 words long which explained nothing about what the newspaper article was about. I told him that he needed to write more & then the melt down happened. He started rolling on the floor crying his heads off telling me that he hates homework. I then showed him the pertinent facts of the newspaper article & how he could go through & underline them if he found that easier. That didn't impress him & there was yet more tantrum throwing. In the end I got him to dictate to me what should be written down. I then wrote it down on a scrap peice of paper so all he had to do was write it in his book. I sent him off to do that & he then proceeded to cry, rant & rave for a good half hour over this homework, which basically all he had to do was copy into his book.

I don't know I am at my wits end with this. He gets upset that he gets told at school that he isn't putting in the effort, I try to help him & he still gets upset. Sometimes I just want to throw my hands in the air & say "to heck with you, do it yourself & don't come bitching to me when you get told your effort isn't good enough."

Tonight I am thoroughly exhausted with trying to handle this situation calmly & rationally. I am about to watch 3 hours of tv & blob out because I am mentally exhausted.

Roll on August & I hope it will be a good month.

Today's Roles

How many different 'hats' will you wear today? Will you be mom, grandma, employee, employer..etc. How do you balance all of it?

Home Engineer: I'm the one who will be doing the laundry, making the dinner & cleaning the bathrooms as usual everyday.

Mother: Always playing this role, making breakfast, driving the boys to & from school, helping with homework etc

Wife: Another role that is an everyday role. Just little things today but hopefully they make his life easier.

Volunteer: I helped out at school today with their Perceptual Motor Programme for year 1 & 2 boys.

Jogger: Yes, I have just come in from my jog. I managed to run for 25 minuted non stop today, I'm getting better at it.

Scrapbooker: This afternoon I plan to do a little scrapbooking.

Blogger: That's me now.

Monday 30 July

The second last card for the month! I can't believe that I will have done this for a month. I am wondering whether to carry on doing it next month or not. People ask what I am going to do with them. Good question, am I just going to have tons of playing card boxes littering my house? I could buy a basket & pop it on the coffee table & then people who want to sit & look could look at them. Is it worth carrying on though? It is like a little snapshot of each day of my life, but would anyone or even myself find it interesting next year for instance? Others keep theirs in baseball pockets in albums, maybe I should do that too especially if i am still creating these when I am on my cruise.

I suppose time will tell if this is my second last card ever or whether I will carry on.

exercise

What do you do for exercise?? And if you don't exercise, why don't you? And if you do, what is your motivation to keep going???

I have just got in from going to the gym to find this blog prompt on http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com

I do a couple of weights sessions a week on Mondays & Fridays. Most of it is for toning up my arms, back & shoulders. There is also a few squats as well. On Tuesdays & Thursdays I go jogging, but I am thinking of ditching the jogging on Thursdays to bike riding once it gets back to summertime. On Wednesdays I go swimming & swim about 1.5kms, 750m is non stop freestyle. I just love swimming so of all the exercise I do swimming is the one I love.

I feel I have to keep doing exercise just to keep my body lubricated, sounds strange but I really think that the exercise is really helping my dodgy knee. The other motivation right now is the thought of the crise coming up in a couple of months & I want to look good in a swimming costume for that. Scott thinks he'll see me in a bikini but I seriously doubt that.

There is also a couple of events that I have been fascinated by & feel like I would like to try. One of them is this event http://www.nzoceanswim.co.nz/default.asp?PageID=5754, which is why I have been swimming the 750m non stop, I know I can swim it, I just have to buy a wetsuit & see if I can swim that far in it.

The other event that I am fascinated by this http://www.realduathlon.co.nz I had entered this event a couple of years ago but didn't race due to a very bad cold. I am tempted to try again, but it just depends on when it will be held in 2008. It is very hard for me to keep up my training/exercise routine when the boys are on holiday, they are too young to go the gym, the gym doesn't have a creche, they can't keep up with me biking & they can't swim without me being at least an "active observer".

I think that as the boys get older it will become easier to do the exercise when they are on holiday but right now it's just not an option.

I really think though that my main motivation for doing exercise is the stress relief that comes with doing it. I get out of the house for a while, clear my head, & if it has been too long since I have done exercise, like today, then I am itching to do it, because I need it.

Sunday 29 July

I have nearly done a month of these little cards, I'm pretty impressed with myself. I admit that at times it does get difficult thinking of something to put on them, if nothing really exciting has happened. Thank goodness for quotes at times like that.





Today has been a day of scrapping & card making while watching most of "The Godfather." I feel like I've accomplished a lot today so maybe I should scrap & watch DVD's at the same time in future, I usually just listen to music.





James is getting better & I will be sending him back to school tomorrow, Brent is sounding a bit off but I hope that a good sleep tonight fixes him. I want my house back to myself!





I suppose I should show you the holder I have made for these little cards.

Basically it is just a playing card box that I made up using the http://www.clubscrap.com July kit. it seems appropriate to stick July cards in a box made of the July kit.

Tomorrow is Monday & another week will be underway - week 31. The year is flying by very quickly. Have a great week everyone.

Creations

I've been scrapping & finishing off the cards I started at the Stampin' Up party.First off is this layout created using all papers from http://www.clubscrap.com/.





These are a couple of the cards that we made yesterday at Vicki's mailto:tattatortie@gmail.com spring mini catalogue release. There is another card that we made but I have added some kindyglitz to it, so it needs to dry before I can scan it.

I am starting to make my digital layout "King of my heart" for the latest scrapjack http://www.kiwijackmeup.blogspot.com I have an idea of how it should look, I have the photo but I want to extract Scott from the photo so I am off to read the PSE manual.

Saturday 28 July

Yet again a lumpy item (the mini beads in the middle of the flower) makes the scan look a bit naff. Not a soccer card for yesterday, soccer was played but I didn't go as I stayed home & looked after James. Apparently Scott had to ref Brent's game which they lost 5-0.

These stamps are all from Stampin'Up. I went to Vicki's Spring catalogue release & had a lot of fun making cards & of course shopping. I was the lucky winner of the door prize so thanks Vicki for the cute little double take stamps.

I came home to find dinner nearly cooked which was wonderful. We turned on the news & saw some item about the Christchurch Arts Festival. I didn't even realise it was on, so we bundled up & went into the Cathedral Square to see some of the art on display. It was quite interesting & the space ship took the boys fancy. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside it but we might have to go back during daylight hours & see what it is like on the inside.

Friday 27 July

James was home sick again, I really hope he will be going back to school on Monday. I was just getting back into my routine of going to the gym & now it has gone out the window again. Instead I spent another 30 minutes in the garden. I managed to get the whole of the vegetable garden weeded & nearly half of it turned over. The next job in that garden will be to lift the strawberry plants & put them in my prpogator before getting a trailer load of new soil.

After doing a bit of laundry James & I loaded the car up with all the recycling stuff that recyclers don't collect & took it to the dump. That has tided out the garage a bit so I'm happy about that. My dresser that I wanted to declutter, dust & polish up still hasn't even been looked at, but when the sun shines it is just asking for you to be outside.

After picking Brent up from school we took him swimming. He was thrilled to find that he had Margaret, who had taught him a few years ago at Jellie Park teaching him for the night. She really concentrated on getting the class doing their breathing for freestyle correctly. Brent is slowly coming to grips with it, but really it isn't very easy to learn.

The weekend is here, so have a good one everybody.

Thursday 26 July

Today was another mild winter's day, so mild that I got out in the garden for an hour. I have nearly weeded the whole of the vegetable garden, so I am feeling really good about that. I think a little bit more time tomorrow & I will have it all weeded. It's been a very long time since I have had it looking so good. I got lost in weeds after the renovations & it has taken all this time to bring it back.

Wednesday 25 July

Well that writing doesn't show up very well. It says "Was today the start of Spring? 18C"

Will wonders never cease after two weeks of cruddy wet, grey weather all of a sudden the weather gods pull out a stunner. It was a nice sunny north west day. Fantastic day for drying clothes on the line outside, which made me think that it has been months since I last did that. Could it be that spring is coming around the corner? Or are we about to get slammed with a bitterly cold weather system just to finish the winter off with a bang?

By the way the weather forecast for tomorrow is more of today's weather. Woohooo!

24 July

I am a day late making this one. I am just thankful that I am not a single mum, I really don't know how they do it. After getting all the homework done, the dinner cooked & the boys fed it was then time to watch my Tuesday night TV programs. It doesn't help that it is a marathon 3 hour session on a Tuesday starting at 7:30 with the Amazing Race. Scott usually oversees putting the boys to bed but with him gone for a night it was up to me. At least they went to bed without much of a fuss, helped in part by James being exhausted. He has come down with a wracking cough & was pretty tired last night. He fell asleep with the light on & a book in his hand. Brent was also very good about going to bed so he got money for that.

I tell you though I don't think I could do this day in day out, so very thankful that Scott is a wonderful husband & father to the boys.

Advice to my younger self

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I was very shy as a girl so my advice would be take that leap of faith & believe in yourself. You are worth knowing, you have some great attributes, believe in yourself.

If you try something & it doesn't work, don't beat yourself up over it, because at least you tried & gave it your best shot.

You are never going to please everyone all of the time, accept that fact & free yourself from trying to be the perfect anything. Give of your best & if that isn't good enough for someone then that will be their problem not yours. You can only do your best, sometimes it's not good enough for others, but make sure it is good enough for you.

Monday 23 July

Mondays are all about laundry for me. There is always an accumulation of stuff from the weekend along with all the sheets & pillowcases as well. The laundry does seem to be never ending & I have piles all over the laundry floor. At least today the sun shone & the wind blew gently so really not a bad day for hanging clothes on the line to dry. They didn 't dry much but it certainly blew out the wrinkles, it must cut down on the length of time the dryer is on too.

Favourtie Childhood Foods

Do you have favorite childhood foods that you still love? Or ones you can't believe you used to eat?

I think that I still eat the same food as I did when I was younger. I never really had any wierd food combinations when I was a child.

My favourite food as a child was my mum's homemade chicken noodle soup, I just loved it. I was so thrilled when I went up to mum's earlier this month & she had it going, I just had to have a mug of it. It is made with boiled up chicken carcasses, but there is more to it than that because I have done that & mine just does not taste the same. Funny how parents or even grandparents have a recipe, not even written down, that they seem to follow. They tell you how to do it & you still can't get it to taste the same.

Another favourite, that I don't make often because none of the males in my family like cooked mushrooms, was my mum's chicken casserole. I can make this one & get it to taste like my mum's but none else in the family but me likes it. One day I'll just have to make it & freeze it in small portions to have in a toasted sandwich for lunch.

Those are the two off the top of my head, that are my favourites, they are also soul food, so maybe that is why they are my favourites.

22 July

What a beautiful sight today, a watery yellow orb in the sky, & for a while there were no clouds even. Can't get much better than that, but it did. I even got to do some scrapping today, not much just one paper layout but I did also finish an article for the ScrapTown newsletter. What a wonderful day.

A new week starts tomorrow & it will be a busy one. I have Scott flying to Wellington on Tuesday & over nighting up there & he won't be back until Wednesday night. Tuesday I will have PMP to teach. Wednesday I must remember to have the boys dressed in their PE gear as they are both going to QE2 for gymnastics. I have a hair appointment that morning too, I'm really looking forward to that bit of pampering. Soccer practice Wednesday afternoon for Brent quickly followed by picking up Scott off the plane. Thursday is a relatively normal day & then Friday has swimming lessons for the boys. Next saturday is soccer in the morning then I am going to a Stampin' Up spring catalogue release & then Sunday hopefully I'll be able to scrap.

I hope you all have a wonderful week & here is a thought for the week:

"Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment."
Barry LePatner

21 July

Saturday is soccer morning & it was drizzling, like it has been all week. We listened avidly to the cancellations in hopes that the boys games would be cancelled but no such luck. We trooped down to the park & across many muddy fields to James' field. It was alright until the game started & then the wind picked up. It was coming straight from Antartica & it was bitter. James played the whole game in his jacket to keep warm. Then it was off to Brent's game & if we thought James' game was bad, Brent's was worse because not only did the wind pick up even more but it started drizzling. It was horribly cold & not much to enjoy either with his team losing 5-0 at half time. They did pull it back to about 6-2 by the final whistle. Of course it looks like the games after Brent's had been cancelled because the whole soccer fields emptied & even the coffee man had left.
Sometimes it would be nicer to run on the field & kick the ball around myself rather than standing miserably cold on the sidelines.

20 July

I have a desk calendar with pictures of paintings on it. Not your normal paintings but ones done by people who have no hands. These people do amazing paintings using either their mouth or foot. How amazing is that to be able to paint using your mouth or foot? The world wide organisation have a website, I bought this calendar from the New Zealand group. http://www.amfpa.com/html/show.php?lang=2
I can't even paint like this with my hands, I find it inspiring that there are people out there who don't need hands to paint. This picture has been sitting on my desk all of June. It is from an original painted with the mouth by T. S. Hung. Lillies always remind me of summer & yet again it has been very much a dreary winter day. I am dreaming of summer & the sunshine.

The big news is that Christchurch has less smog days this winter than last. I'll tell you why, it's because we haven't had as many frosts this year instead we have had horrible wet, grey, cloudy, no sun to be seen, days instead. I want a nice frosty day & sunshine please! I'm beginning to think that the lady cop in "Men in Trees" has a great idea in her UV light that she keeps turning on in winter. I could really do with one of those now. I need to see some sunshine!

Reading Habits

Well would you look at that I have had over 1000 unique IP addresses look at my blog! Woohoo!

On to today's blog prompt from www.digitalscrapbookplace.com
How many books do you have started, but not finished? Or do you only read one book at a time?

I only read one book at a time & at the moment I am reading some second hand books from my aunt. She had a lot of Danielle Steel so I am reading "Lightning" at the moment. It is about a woman who is diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully I'm reading this book now & not a couple of months ago or I really mightn't have slept well. I always read a chapter a night before turning off my light. I can't seem to unwind & go to sleep if I don't read. Sometimes even 1 chapter isn't enough to do it, so it draws out to 2 or 3 chapters. During "my holidays", those are ones when it is just Scott & me & no kids, I usually read through the day too, because I love it so much.

Now magazines are a totally different story. I have one scrapping magazine in the car, one by my bed & then a non scrapping magazine to curl up & read in the sunshine. So I presently have 3 magazines on the go.

19 July

It seems like that for everyday of the last 2 weeks I have had to tell the boys to stop playing with doors.

Today James was in hisbedroom with his bedroom door closed & he was kicking it while Brent was trying to get into his bedroom. I went & threw open James' door to tell him off for a) playing with the door & b) for kicking the door & instead I managed to knock James into his wardrobe door where he hit his head on the door knob because he had that door open. He has a very sore head & I feel like a really rotten mother. I didn't know that his wardrobe door was open, other wise I wouldn't have pushed open his bedroom door. When will the boys ever learn not to play with doors, & how many times am I going to have to repeat that refrain above before they start getting it & stop playing with doors.

Useless Trivia

Share a piece of useless/interesting information with the rest of us today.

Here's a peice of trivia that might be relevant to us Southern Hemisphere people at the moment. Studies have found that Vitamin C is not likely to keep away the common cold, or even lessen the severity of the cold. Apparently the thought that vitamin C was great for curing colds has actually been under dispute for 60 years. So maybe the old wives tales of lemon juice being good for colds is just a tale.

18 July

Yes it has been raining a lot today & just when I thought that soccer practice would be cancelled, the rain cleared & soccer pratice was on. This morning I went for a swim & swam 1.5km in 45 minutes, I'm really happy with that plus 750m of it was all freestyle non stop. Came home from that & enjoyed a nice long shower until I cut myself shaving under my arm. Ouch & the blood poured out, that called for a mad dash with just a towel wrapped around me to the kitchen for a band aid. I hope the neighbours can't see over our fence. Then I did manage a bit of vacuuming & housework before it was lunch time & then time to pick the boys back up. A quick change for Brent into soccer gear & then back out to Jellie Park for soccer practice. Then an hour later we were back home, Brent was in the bath & out again before going & picking Scott up from the airport.

It's nice to get back into the routine again, I think my day just flows better when i have a set routine & can stick to it.

Tomorrow I am hoping to go for a jog before coming home to work out next week's menu & have what I call "desk day". Hopefully I'll get my portion of the ScrapTown newsletter written up. I am still trying to work out where to start on that. All the digi stuff I have learnt has been from other websites & I am wondering if I have to put a bibliography just in case I inadvertantly copy something from some other site. I don't want to tread on anyone's toes & not give credit where credit may be due.

Future Discovery

Today's blog prompt comes from http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com

What future discovery do you eagerly await? Why?

There are so many diseases out there that don't seem to have a known cure, or if they do they are too complex & have too many unknowns about them that are not allowed to try. The ones that quickly come to my mind is cancer, AIDS, alzheimers, diabetes & parkinson's. In some of these cases there could well be a cure but the whole question of using animal matter inside a human is just too scarey a proposition for people to accept.

I hope the next discovery will be the way to cure these diseases without having to resort to animal or stem cell transplants. There must be a way to get around the whole issue. Why can't what is in those things be put in drug form & given to people.

It seems odd to me that technology is advancing so quickly from computers the size of buildings in the 1950's to the tiny computers we have today. Why hasn't medical research advanced quite as fast. Is there really no money to be made in it? Or does the world not have the same number of medical geniuses as we do technological geniuses? I suppose it boils down to the fact that a human body is a very complex peice of equipment, & eventually we all have to die of something.

17 July

Yippee the boys are back at school again. I did have to help out at PMP this morning & then came back home & updated my blog. As I was doing that the rain stopped so I decided to go for a run. I managed to run for 24 minutes, but it didn't feel as comfortable as it was before the school holidays started. At least I managed to do it non stop & I still think I was at a faster pace than I was when I was training for my duathlon. After the run it was time to tackle the pile of laundry & do a spot of housework. Sat down had lunch & then before I knew it, it was time to pick the boys back up again. The day went way to quickly.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to being able to go for a swim & then a nice long shower in peace & quiet. Ahh bliss!

Pet driving Peeves

This prompt comes from http://www.scraptown.com

Tell us all about your pet peeves... what make you really mad.. go ahead let it all out!

Most of the things that really make me mad are just the little things that keep niggling until all at once it is just happened once too often & then I get mad. A few of them are things that happen at home & some of them are things that happen while I am driving. I think I have covered the at home ones before.

The things that make me steam when I am driving are mainly a lack of respect for other road users. For instance when a person pulls out in front of you, making you jam on your brakes. It makes me even more angry when they then proceed to carry along at less than the speed limit. That really makes me very angry.

Christchurch has a horrible problem with red light runners. I drive along Memorial Ave several times a day & I really think that they could do with some right turn arrows. People drive straight through late orange lights, when they could have stopped meaning that those people turning right are doing so on a red light which in some cases is green for the other side. That is unbelievably dangerous & I am left wondering whether it would happen if there were right turning arrows. At least if you are turning right & you know you will get an arrow you might feel inclined to wait for the next rotation.

I am finding it more & more dangerous driving on Christchurch roads, what with red light runners, people speeding, not indicating lane changes it really is becoming more dangerous. I am now getting to the stage where at intersections I have to ask the boys to be quiet just so I can seriously concentrate on what I am doing. In some cases I think the problem is that the other people aren't actually concentrating & what I can see as a hazard they don't seem to see until they are on top of it. A case in point was on Friday. I was doing a right turn from Memorial Ave into Kendal Ave. I have to cross to lanes of traffic to do so, & in the far lane there were 3 cars. Car #1 & #2 were indicating left, car #3 was speeding up behind them. Car #1 stopped to give way to me, but car 3 was speeding so fast that I decided not to take the turn. He then nearly wiped out car 2 that had stopped behind car 1 & then swerved into the lane closer to me in such a huge arc that he nearly clipped me. I was stationary & in the right place but the driver of car 3 was so wrapped up in his own world he hadn't noticed what was happening at the intersection I was sitting at.

Then on the Monday before that I had a real shock. The light was green my way (it had been for quite some time) & I was about to turn right into Memorial Ave & this car came driving straight through the intersection, from my left, & proceeded to turn right down the road I was trying to get out of. I am just so thankful that I had taken that extra time to check because the boys & I would have been written off. Scott would have been waiting at the airport wondering when we were going to pick him up.

It's dangerous to drive on Christchurch roads & I just touch wood that so far I have been very lucky to have missed some very close calls.

16 July

Woohoo the boys are in bed reading & it is finally the end of the holidays. The boys start their third term tomorrow, & I can't wait to have the house back to myself & Mo. I think Mo is dying for the boys to go back to school too, she hasn't been able to stay inside at all while the boys have been home. I have to say though that I really need a break. The boys have been driving me up the wall & today I just locked them out of the house & told them that as the sun is finally shining they were to play outside all day. They did play outside & surprisingly because I was putting this undue hardship on them they banded together & played very nicely with each other. Dear me, i don't want to have to lock them out every day of every holidays just so they will play nicely with each other.

So tomorrow to celebrate my quiet house I will of course tidy the place up. What a way to celebrate! I have a horrible feeling that I may be having to do PMP tomorrow, it usually is on a Tuesday morning, so just as I have dropped my 2 boys off, I have to go to the school hall & spend 2 hours with 30 other year 1 & 2 boys, oh yeah! I really do hope it is not on tomorrow, it would be nice to just drop the boys off & then come home to a quiet house & have a nice peaceful shower & cup of coffee. Quickly followed by spending some time doing a blog prompt because I have been missing doing those in the morning.

I'll be back tomorrow morning hopefully with an answered blog prompt.

July 15

This could almost have been us today except there is one person too many. We drove to Springfield today to see the unveiling of the donut that is a part of promoting the Simpson's movie release. Springfield is in the foothills of the Southern Alps & there was snow quite low down the mountains. It was quite chilly when the wind blew straight off the mountains but it was nice & warm in the sun. Bart & Homer were there & the boys got a hug from Homer. I also took some photos of the boys & the donut. We were going to try & geocache but there were more people there than I thought there would be. We did find one cache & that was in Darfield, however I have got the answers to the cache in Springfield, now I just need a muggle free time to get the cache. It was a wonderful afternoon in the country.

July 14

Most of my Saturday mornings are spent walking the sidelines of soccer games. James' game is first up in a shady cold area of the park. His team have a fantastic player, in that he is very good & scores all the goals, not so fantastic in that he is the I in TEAM. He takes the ball all the time. However it does mean that James' team has won nearly every game this season & yesterday was no different.

Brent's team is a different story. There are a couple of good players & the rest have played in at least one other season unlike Brent who is new to soccer this season. His team have lost every game so far until YESTERDAY! They played a fantastic game as a team. Brent was put at back & he had Scott behind the back line coaching the two backs & goalies on their field placement throughout the game. Brent stopped a sure goal & was awarded player of the day. The best thing though was that they finally won a game! You should have seen their faces light up as they came off the field, they were even carrying themselves more proudly & there was more self belief in them. I hope that they can carry on that self belief into the next game & maybe until teh end of the season.

I was thrilled that I happened to have my camera on hand to capture the game, not the 2 goals unfortunately, but I did get a photo of Brent holding his player of the day certificate. Also I was very lucky in that James' team had a team photo so I was able to quickly snap some photos of their team. I haven't been able to do that for Brent's team, but maybe the club will send us the photos anyway.

Answering Questions from the last week

I have had a couple of questions asked in the last week so I thought I had better answer them.

Jenny said...
Looks like lots of fun, Katrina. What are you going to do with all your cards and how many are you planning on making?
I had a pack of 52 blank cards & a box sent to me in a Club Scrap kit a long time ago. They had been sitting around so I have decided to alter them. I haven't put the box together yet because I might stamp it & decorate it up. So in the end they will end up being in a playing card box. I have also toyed with thoughts of maybe including a few on a layout or something but at the moment I am just enjoying the simple little sit down each night & create something. It has become a bit of a habit that I quuite like. Just like doing blog prompts was really enjoyable too in the morning. Time to sit back & reflect & think.

bahama97 said...
Did you see anything curious on the 2nd viewing of Shrek? We watched it & enjoyed the not-so-obvious humor. I think the first is still my favorite.
I was actually laughing more the second time I saw it, because of the not so obvious humour. I think I prefer Shrek 1 as well.

Hannah said...
That sounds like a lot of fun! I think Ethan would enjoy it. How do you know where they are in your area? Is there a website you go to? I don't know much about geocaching really ;-)
There is a website http://www.geocaching.com/seek that is free thatis where everyone enters all the caches that are hidden around the country. There are 100's hidden around Auckland, this is by no means all of them but here is a few
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?lat=-36.848133&lon=174.774717

What you need to do is get a GPS unit. We have a Garmin C60, it's not the top of the line, but not the bottom either. It holds a lot of waypoints (which is the coordinates of all the geocaches) & does the trick for us. Brent, Scott & I love geocaching. James doesn't mind it really but doesn't want to be driving long distances just to go geocaching. Too bad for him today as we are planning to head to Springfield a) to see if the Simpson's movie donut is there yet & b) because we are going to try & find some caches on the way there or back again.

I hope that answered all the questions that have arisen so far this week.

Layout

I got this most beautiful kit from Club Scrap earlier this month. The papers have a lot of buildings, towers & arches printed on them. I immediately thought of my European trip way back in 1992. I have a few layouts in this album already. It is incorporating both the photos & the diary keeping that I did during that time. A lot of the diary keeping are my thoughts & feelings (mainly about Scott) but sometimes just what happened on tour. I have hidden most of the journalling in this album because it is kind of personal but then it is also nice to have everything in 1 place rather than in the 3 separate places it is in now. The journalling for this layout is behind the flap I made in the purple tower paper. The bottlecap is the handle to open it.

13 July

Yesterday was the last day of just Brent & me time. Brent chose to go geocaching. After dropping Scott off at work we headed to the "elephant park" & finally found the "Where foxes fly" cache. It has always been a bit difficult to get because of all the children ("muggles") in the park. We went home & put a load of laundry on before heading out towards Methven. On the way out there we found 2 other caches. We stopped at Charing Cross to find another but couldn't find it, & despite being off the main road it was still very busy with farming traffic. We then headed for one that is at the entrance to Mt Hutt Station. We got there to find snow lying on the ground. Unfortunately the ground is where this cache is hidden so we never found it because it was either under snow or the ground was frozen solid so we couldn't lift stones or even branches to have a look.

It was about lunchtime after we gave up the hunt for that cache so we went into Methven to have lunch at Cafe 131. It wasn't bad but the wait to get the meal was a bit long, I seem to recall it was when Scott & I visited it earlier in the year. Obviously they haven't smartened up their act for the winter tourists.

We left there & headed back to Christcurch driving past a cache site in Rakaia. It was way too busy to contemplate doing, as there is not only a park there but they have now opened up a tourist centre too. It might have to be a night operation to get that cache.

There's another cache on the outskirts of Hornby so we headed towards it & wouldn't you know just as we got within 1 km of it the GPS ran out of batteries. I stopped put some replacement batteries in & then circled around to try & approach it agsin only to find that it looks to be on the other side of SH1. There was no way I was stopping & crossing that busy road with Brent so we just drove home & called it a day.


Edited to add my thanks to a geocacher by the handle of Warm Fuzzies (parkrrrr) for the wallpaper that I used in making this card.

12 July

I have got the impression over the last two days that Brent is keeping score. He seemed to get in a bad mood yesterday because James got dinosaurs after the movie & he "only" got a pen. I suggested to him not to get the same dinosaurs as James because inevitably one would go missing & there would be battles over whose one remains. His pen cost the same as James' dinosaurs so I am really not sure what he is griping about. Then this afternoon he asked if we could have breakfast at McDonalds tomorrow. I said no & he said "but you did with James." Yes we did with James it was a Saturday morning & it was James' choice. he wanted McDonalds so for a treat we took him. Brent is sullen because he's not getting a McDonald's breakfast with Scott & I. He seems to conveniently forget he got a dinner at McDonald's earlier this week that James didn't get. I am getting so sick & tired of Brent constantly making sure that he is getting EXACTLY the same as James. Hence the "Don't make me count!"

11 July

Yes you read that right. I went to see Shrek the 3rd again, this time with Brent. Some of you know how much I hate reading a book twice & I am very much the same with movies or TV programs. It wasn't too bad really I just concentrated on trying to pick up any nuances that I might have missed the first time.

We arrived at the cinema at 8:30 which was a bit early for a 9am show but there was a reason. Harry Potter opened today so I didn't want to get caught in the mad rush of that. Brent & I managed to get in the cinema doors early & then the cinema staff closed the doors. They started vacuuming the floors & filling up the ice containers for the drinks, popping popcorn & getting them selves ready. At 8:45 a whole bevy of the staff come out & said to each other "Are you ready?". They then opened up the booking line & opened up the doors to the cinema. My goodness I have never seen so many young people rush up stairs like that before. We were the very first to buy tickets today but the cashier was very surprised to find out that we only wanted to see Shrek. We got our tickets & of course the popcorn & lemonade & went to sit in the theatre. At 9am there were only 5 people in the theatre to watch Shrek & that is the way it stayed. You have to wonder how much money they make on opening a whole theatre, turning on the heating in there, lighting etc all for only 5 people.

After the movie we went to Nature Discoveries (I just love this shop http://www.nature.co.nz )& bought a pen for Brent as well as a really good logic game. It's a game that is for one person to play although children may need a hand with the logic of it. There are only 6 peices to the game & 5 of those peices are stored inside the game board. It is small & compact just perfect for travelling in the car. Here's a link to the game we got
http://www.smart.be//en/products/puzzles-games/smartgames/SG102 Brent is just loving this game & Scott was down on the floor helping him earlier tonight. It is a wonderful game so hopefully James will enjoy doing it as well, especially as it has pirate ships on it.

10 July

I am lucky that I am not getting deluged on like some parts of New Zealand but I hate grey days. Give me a really hard frost & sunshine anyday over grey days where the sun doesn't shine.

9 July 2007 card

The printer screwed up my last peice of transparency so I had to resort to handwriting in a very fine tip pen. The quote is

"It's not a 9-5 job.
It's an every moment you're awake job
because you actually enjoy the work
that you're doing."

Jeffrey Kalmikoff

8 July

We took a trip to Porters Pass to play in the snow. It was very much a family trip this time, my sister and her family came as well as mum & of course the four of us.

It was very snowy and icey so just after Springfield they had Ministry of Works people stopping everyone to check that they had chains on. Luckily 4wd were able to go through without chains, although we were carrying them. It was a winter wonderland with the sun really sparkling off the snow.

We went to Lake Lyndon first. The Lake isn't frozen over yet but Scott & Brent both had a little twirl on a part that was quite solidly frozen. We then decided to make snowmen but the snow was amazingly dry. It was like little peices of caster sugar & just like caster suger they would not stick together. I don't think I have ever seen snow like it, it just so fine & you could just see the little individual snow particles no wonder the sun was glinting of it & really making it sparkle.

However we did find that that type of snow is just perfect for making snow angels as it is easy to brush aside. All 3 of my boys made an angel so here's a photo of my 3 angels. That's James in the background.

It wasn't great snow to make snowballs either but it did make for nice snow showers over the top of people. In fact it was so fine that it drifted in the slight breeze.

After a bit of a play we had lunch. James & Scott had made meatballs the previous day, Brent & mum had made a quiche & Jo brought some bread & smoked chicken. We set up the picnic chairs & had a lunch out in the snow. It was a good chance to warm up any cold feet by sitting in the car in the sun.

After lunch it was time for some more fun this time going sleding. As usual our sleds were in Wanaka so we resorted to the plastic bag trick again. Even James got into it this year which is nice. He still just sledded down a little slope but Scott & Brent climbed up the hill numerous times for a go down the hill. Brent absolutely loved it & despite the fact he was complaining of cold feet at lunch time he was quite annoyed when we decided to pack up & leave for home.

Keep it Fresh

That little button on the top of this blog is if you want to receive an email notification of when I update my blog. It will ask you to fill in your email address & may also ask for a password.

For other bloggers out there here is the link http://www.blogarithm.com if you would like others to have the ability to get email notifications of when you update your blogs.

7th July

Today was Crop day! I love those monthly crops.

6th July

James & I went to see Shrek the Third. It was awfully expensive $15 for me & $8 for James. No wonder I leave that for a once only in the school holidays treat.

5th July

My Club Scrap kit arrived on this day. This is the July Bistro colours & one of the stamps.

4th July

The door opens to reveal a sticker saying "Oh Boy".

3rd July Card

Pretty self explanatory as to what I had to listen to while doing endless loads of laundry.

2nd July Card

It's school holidays so this horrible question gets asked a lot.

Daily cards

I decided that Elsie Blaha has a great idea, in creating a card a day. Her cards http://eliseblaha.typepad.com/cardart look fantastic, mine don't really but they do represent what I either thought of or did that day. My cards are just plain white ATC sized cards. No they aren't playing cards, they have no suits on them but this is my take on them. I have just date stamped the back of them so I know which day they are.

I started on July 1 with this card. I found an Audrey Hepburn quote on a forum & I thought it was one worth remembering so it is now saved on this little card.

Beauty

Define the idea of beauty -- physical, artistic, natural, whatever...just talk about what you think is beautiful.

The first thing that comes to mind when I read that is "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." What I think is beautiful may not be what you think is beautiful.

There are some things that as a mother of boys that I feel I have to teach them. A case in point was a conversation with Brent earlier this year. His friends & him were talking about their mother's weights & one friend said that their mother (who is about 6 foot 2 with a lovely slim figure) weighed 85kgs. The boys laughed & said that she weighed the same amount as an elephant so she must look like one. Brent was then asked what I weighed. I happened to walk in on the conversation then & was able to take him away. Brent then asked me how much I weighed. My weight & size is an issue with me, but I give myself credit for going to the gym & doing exercise about 5 times a week to at least have a healthy if hefty body. I said that I weighed 85kg. He laughed at me & his jaw kind of dropped. I asked why he wanted to know & he told me the conversation he had had with his friends. I said that it didn't matter what people weighed & that it is better to find out what people are like as friends, than to judge someone on their weight or their looks.

I really do feel that I have to teach the boys to value people for more than their looks & that they have to value themselves for their non physical attributes as well as their physical ones.

Natural beauty is all around us. I see it in the way light hits crystals & then casue a lovely rainbow explosion of colours. I see it when the light plays on dewdrops caught on spiders webs. I see it in the way the steam rises when the sun hits it.

I think there is beauty all around us, either physical, artistic or natural & we just have to take the time to STOP, look & hear & we will see it.

World UFO Day

Today is World UFO day. What do you think UFOs are? Do you believe in little green men?

I have no idea what UFO's truely are, sometimes I think that I really don't want to know but then it would be nice to know what they are.

I do believe that in this huge galaxy we live in there must be other forms of life. No I don't think they are little green men in fact I think that they may not be manlike at all. Surely there is some life of some sort on those other planets out there, even if it is at a basic amoeba level. I find it hard to conceive that this planet would be the only one with some sort of life on it.

New Month

A new month has arrived & I can't believe that it is over half way through the year already.

A new month is time for new music. I try to keep a bit of a Kiwi flavour to this blog & I like to have Kiwi music playing. The band I chose this time is Evermore, although my guess is soon they'll be claimed by the Aussies, just like a few other NZ bands have in the past. Here's a link to their own hompage, & no I didn't get to see them play on June 29th.
http://www.evermoreband.com

While searching around for some free Kiwi music to play I happened upon Outrageous Fortune Series Promo 3 on YouTube. I just love this program, it is adult entertainment, so please take note of that before clicking on it. It has bad language, sexual references, violence, drinking & probably every other vice as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94OawKbP6bc

Of course not all NZ'ers live this way but I enjoy watching it. It is so different from the stuff that we normally see as TV programs. Most of the programs on the Tv are from America.
I think I have bascially got sick & tired of the very watered down, bleeping (if required) programs coming out of the US. I have to say I was quite surprised to watch one episode of The Apprentice when the British guy Sean was on. He had had a bad day & he was going on about how so & so was a wanker. I was surprised that this wasn't bleeped out, maybe the Americans didn't know that it is a very derogatory term. All the other language that was bad had all been bleeped out so this stood out like a sore thumb. Quite funny really.

There is an American program that I love & that is Boston Legal. I keep wondering if anyone in America watches this & what they think of it. I like that Alan Shaw questions the way Denny Crane thinks. As an "alien" to America I love how Alan Shaw's views seem to correspond with how some of the world does see America.

New month, new music & it looks like a new lineup is coming on to the TV screens here too. Yipppee!

High School

What were your high school colors? Team names? Clubs you belong too? Did you graduate? What do you remember most about your graduation day?

I went to St margaret's College for my high school years. Their colour was green but if you did really well at sports you got to wear a "colours" blazer that was red.

Of course New Zealand is different from the US & basically all out teams were just called St Margaret's. I played netball from 3rd form (year 9) until 6th form (year 12) when I ripped my anterior cruciate ligament. I haven't been able to play netball since. In 5th form (year 11) I became a school librarian & retained that position until I left. In my last year (year 13) I was Head Librarian & also Head Sacristan.

We don't really do graduation ceremonies from high school, that is really only for University (I think that is College in the US). Yes I did stay at my high school until the end & did well enough that I was granted entrance to university, from which I did graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce.

Scrapping & thoughts it brought up

Not much to show scrapping wise from the weekend. In fact I didn't scrap much at all. I did get one layout done & then thought that maybe try my hand at creating an altered playing card each day & see what comes of that.Darling little Brent used to take a good long 2 or 3 hour nap on me every afternoon, it was a wonderful time because it usually allowed me to nap too. At first I was worried that he would fall off me & on to the floor or that I would crush him, but that never happened. When James was that age I tried to get him to do the same thing but he wouldn't have a bar of it. James was always attuned to Brent & any little noise from Brent & he would be awake. He had to be absolutely exhausted to actually sleep through the day, which left me rather exhausted too. The interesting thing is that yesterday morning I was lying in bed, after being woken by Brent talking, & thinking how attuned James was to Brent when he was little & next thing I hear James talking too. I guess he still is attuned to Brent & wouldn't want to miss one moment that Brent is awake.

Obviously some things never change, it will be interesting to see how their relationship develops as they get older. I sincerely hope they will have a wonderful, caring relationship with each other.