Bits n Bobs

Autumn card

2011-04-06T11:39:00.000+12:00

Obviously I have a lot of either retired Stampin' Up! product or other scrapbook/stamping companies product sitting around in my craft room. It seems a shame that I can't show everyone all that I make with these supplies so I decided to show you what I make with this type of product on this blog.

I made this card last year, it was part of a series of cards using the Lovely as a Tree stamp set. That stamp set is very much current but the paper I used is no longer in the current Stampin' Up! Idea Book & catalogue.

The leaves in Christchurch have not only started to turn but they are falling to the ground. I wonder what the flooding is going to be like this autumn when we have a busted sewerage network & storm water drains can't hold all the rain let alone all the leaves that are blocking the drains. So far I haven't seen any street sweepers come by to pick the leaves, they were on to it quickly last year but I suppose the City Council has more important issues than possible flooding due to a build up of leaves.

Another season has arrived a timely reminder that life does go on no matter what. We just have to adjust ourselves to what mother nature throws at us.

It's been a long time!

2011-04-05T12:47:00.000+12:00

It's been a very long time since I have posted to this blog. Since the last post I have been to India with Scott while he was on business. We finished the trip with a weekend in Singapore which was fantastic. We came home to a house that was still standing & with minor damage despite having an earthquake. We then went to Fiji as a family & the boys enjoyed being away from a shaky city.

We all came back home & got into the 4th term of the school year which involved athletic sports & carol services & then it was holidays. We spent the holidays in Wanaka & Christchurch, leaving Christchurch just after the aftershock on Boxing day. Yet again it was good to be out of the city.

The new school year started with Brent deciding that he really would like to go into boarding, so that is what he is doing this year. James is enjoying being the only child in the house most of the time. The aftershocks had died down & we got complacent then on February 22 BANG!

Apparently it only lasted 23seconds but that was one of the most terrifying 23 seconds of my life. One minute I was enjoying eating lunch in front of TV & the next the house started a gentle shake, then the power went off, which kind of freeked me out because that's never happened to me during any of the aftershocks. Then just as I was pondering the significance of this happening the house started really shaking violently so violently that I couldn't walk without lurching to one side or the other. Things on the TV cabinet fell to the floor, the sliding door that is our front door slid open, the door to the hot water cupboard just swang open. It stoppped & the first thing I did was walk towards the table to get my cellphone only for the next one to hit. It sent me scurrying with tears in my eyes to stand back under the doorway where I was before. It stopped again & I ran to the table to get my cellphone only to have another shake so I was back under the doorway again. At least this one was a lot smaller & I could just lean against the door frame & ring Scott to see if he was alright. Of course everyone was doing the same thing so I couldn't get through. I decided to text him instead & this was my message " Are you alright.I'm scared shitless & we have no power." At 1:02pm I got the comforting message "I am ok, things are bad here in town" Scott walked home from Cathedral Square & picked both boys up from school on the way. It was a huge relief to have all of them home safe & sound.

The boys had a week & a half off school & then it was back to school & all the activities that were supposed to happen within the 10week term had to fit in the remaining 5 weeks. Now we are very quickly coming to the end of the term. The boys finish the term on Friday.

Blogosphere Book Circle - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

2010-10-31T14:18:00.002+13:00

Title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Author: Jane Austen and Seth grahame-Smith
Published: Quirk Productions 2009

From the back cover:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet village of Meryton - and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menacer, but she's soon distrcted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilised sparring between the two young lovers- and even more violent sparring on the blood soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of teh class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalisim, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.

Well I rather disagree with the sentiment expressed in the last sentence of that blurb. I am left wondering why anybody would want to change Pride & Prejudice & why he thinks it is better with sword fights & zombies in it. I suppose I am a classical person & feel that classics should not be ripped off like this. I don't think it improved the story at all having sword fights & zombies but then maybe Pride & Prejudice is too boring for male readers. Was the author trying to get more people to read a classic? I don't know, plus having a Readers Discussion Guide at the back really rubbed me the wrong way. I had to read Pride & Prejudice at school in English & I loved the book then, I loved the way Elizabeth fought with her words.

I really don't like this book & feel quite strongly that someone really shouldn't make money off totally taking someone else's work & just slightly adjusting it like this. Maybe I don't get it, maybe he really was trying to poke fun at Pride & Prejudice, but why? I am just glad that I didn't spend money on this book because it just felt like a cheap rip off of a classic & I can't see why it was a New York Times Best seller.

Robocup – Sunday 15 August

2010-08-16T15:21:00.001+12:00

Meet Michaelbot!

This robot was created by Brent & two of his friends in robotics. Brent is new to robotics & only took it up this year at school. So far he hasn’t seemed greatly interested in it but I think yesterday may have sparked him a bit, thanks to the Robocup. His team put this robot in the dance competition. It would seem that the criteria for this competition is to build a robot or two (or more, more points are awarded to having more than 1 robot on the dance floor) & get it to move or dance inside a 1.8m square to music. The actual design does not have to look at all humanoid, it could be made to look like a train, cats, a lion whatever the imagination can up with.

Brent’s robot was rather humanoid like & it was supposed to dance to Thriller by Michael Jackson. It had a pretend microphone in its hand & was supposed to move it arms up & down while moving across the dance floor. Unfortunately the first two attempts the poor robot fell on to it’s face & then on the last attempt it did stand upright & its arms moved up & down but it didn’t move around the dance floor.

I don’t think Brent was too disappointed but he was really interested in the other robots in the dance competition. He is now worried that Christ’s College & St. Andrew’s don’t do robotics so he really doesn’t want to go to those secondary schools thanks very much. However he is happy to know that Burnside high does & what’s even better is that we are in the zone for it & it is just down the road.

Personally I think we’ll see what we can find in Singapore, maybe we can find a bargain on a Lego robot down Orchard Road.

Blogosphere Book Circle - Replenishing the Earth

2010-07-26T16:07:00.000+12:00

Title: Replenishing the Earth, The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Angloworld, 1783 -1939
Author: James Belich

I found this book very heavy going. It was both heavy to hold & very heavy reading. So heavy reading that each night I would read about a page & then I was asleep with the book on top of my face. I had the book for a month from the library but I never got it finished. I must have got about halfway & then I had to return it again. I have to say that I didn't check if I could renew it because really I had had enough, I needed some lighter reading.

This book read like a text book that could possibly used for studying anthropology. It was kind of interesting how so much of the Western world speaks English & not Dutch or Spanish or French, but really I was never so interested in it that I wanted to carry on reading it.

I gave it a crack but I have to say for the way I read books, entertainment these days, I'm done with serious studying, it really wasn't up my alley.

Blogosphere Book Circle - Novel About my Wife

2010-05-18T14:58:00.001+12:00

This book is supposed to be August's reading but all the other books are still on loan to other people, so I decided to charge on ahead & read this book.

Title: Novel About my Wife
Author: Emily Perkins
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 2008

From the inside cover:

If I could build her again using words, I would: starting at her long, painted feet and working up, meticulously shading in every cell and gap and space for breath until her pulse just couldn't help but kick back into life. Her hip bones, her red knuckles, the soft skin of her thighs, her fine crackle of hair.

Tom Stone, skinnyish, fortyish, English, is madly in love with his wife Ann, an Australian in self-imposed exile in London. Expecting their first child, they buy a semi-derelict house in Hackney. They believe this is their settled future, despite Tom's stalling career and their spiralling money troubles.

But soon Ann becomes convinced she's being shadowed by a local homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen. As her pregnancy progresses she spends hours cleaning and reorganising the house, and sits up all night talking with a new feverish passion. As their child grows, so too does Tom's sense of an impending, nameless threat. Their home seems beset with vermin, smells and strange noises. On the verge of losing the house, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives.

I found this book to be a very quick & easy read, I really wanted to know what the ending would be. Unfortunately I got to the end & didn't really like the ending. I felt as though I needed to know what really went wrong, what truely made Ann crack. I was thinking up reasons all the way through to the end & felt disappointed that we never got told what Ann really suffered from.

It was an interesting story that I really don't think was about Tom's wife at all, it was more about his perceptions of his wife & how he really didn't know her very well at all.

It was a good read & nice & light compared to the previous book I read.

Blogosphere Book Circle - Bad Science

2010-04-23T12:22:00.000+12:00

Title: Bad Science Author: Ben Godacre Published: HarperCollinsPublishers
From the back cover: Dr Ben Goldacre dispenses fast and powerful relief from: Scaremongering journalists; pill pushing nutritionists; flaky statistics; evil pharmaceutical corporations

I was a bit daunted at the thought of reading this book. It sounded like it was going to be a whole of science stuff that I may not understand. Part of it was but I did read it through the whole way & came away thinking "my goodness could I have now made my son think fish oil is helping him when in fact it isn't?" That is a scary thought & really the book was very thought provoking. The way statistics are read & made to interpret what anyone wants them to interpret & then thrown across the world headlines like they are proven facts is also thought provoking.

Then not days after I had finished reading the book was the headline in the Christchurch Press that the Maori Immersion school - Te Kura... achieved 100% pass rate for all three NCEA levels. In fact I have just found this excerpt from stuff.co.nz I have cut & pasted what the first paragraph says:

A Maori-immersion school in Christchurch has recorded a 100 per cent pass rate for all three NCEA levels.
Te Kura Whakapumau Te Reo Tuturu Ki Waitaha's five year 11s (level one), seven year 12s (level two), and two year 13s (level three) passed the 2009 National Certificate of Educational Achievement, results show.

This is the kind of statistics that the author (Ben Goldacre) was talking about. You need to look behind the statistics & see what is missing. In the case of the stuff article what was missing was the actual figures of how many are actually in the years classes & how many students in those years did actually sit for the NCEA. It makes the school look good from the headline (and maybe it is) but you have to wonder whether there are more than 14 students in years 11 through 13.

I never was greatly into maths but this book did open my eyes as to how statistics can be twisted around to suit people's needs. Then we come back to my fish oil thought. Have I just started bringing up my children to believe the very tight & slick marketing campaigns of huge corporations. My children know that McDonald's isn't a great meal to eat, even if a couple of meals are endorsed by Weight Watchers, but medical/vitamin/supplement campaigns are different. As Goldacre says, just because it sounds pseudo technical it makes us think that they have to be right & that fish oil does help the brain. I'm worried because James truely seems to believe that fish oil makes him think better. I agreed at the beginning of the term that the fish oil did seem to help but by the end of term there really was no apparent help from it at all & I suggested to James we stop taking it. He got very upset & he really does think that fish oil helps him. I seem to have inadvertantly brought up a child who strongly believes in a product that actually doesn't do him any good, hopefully it doesn't do him any harm.

Yes the book certainly made me think & I have started looking at headlines differently. I found it hard going in places but then just as I was about to give up the next chapter was about something interesting & not as difficult to follow.

It is an interesting book but not one I would recommend as a light bedtime reading, your brain needs to be switched on to read it. It has opened up my eyes to the twists & turns of statistics & for that I am thankful. Now I just need to figure out how to deprogramme James from believing that fish oil will fix his brain.

Blogosphere Book Circle - March Book

2010-03-26T10:03:00.001+13:00

Title: Access Road Author: Maurice Gee Published: Penguin Books 2009
From the back cover:

The old family home in Access Road, where Lionel, Roly and Rowan grew up, is crumbling away - but after more than fifty years Lionel and Roly are back. Rowan, too, safe in 'upper crusty' Takapuna, is drawn more and more strongly 'out west'.

The past is dangerously alive. Clyde Buckley, violent as a boy, enigmatic, subterranean as an old man, returns to his childhood territory. What does he want? What crimes does he hide? And how is Lionel involved? Rowan must abandon safety if she is to find out...

I confess now that I have never read a Maurice Gee book before this one. I have no idea what his writing is usually like but I have to say I found this a compelling although dark read. I love the descriptive phrases he uses & this paragraph in particular "Clouds hung their bellies over the sea. The water was leaden and the waves slid up the sand like oil. I beat the rain home by several minutes but couldn't keep it out of the house. The sound on the iron roof was like a train in a tunnel."

His descriptive writing easily led me to imagine a small town on the outskirts of a large city & really could have been describing any small town in New Zealand. Maybe that was the pull of the book, it could happen anywhere in New Zealand. This darkness could actually lurk anywhere in New Zealand. The next thought from that is, is there a chance that by standing and watching these dark acts as a child, not telling anyone about them, could you really be letting a darker act follow later & therefore could you be partly responsible for that act? One character in the book clearly thought so & Rowan? Maybe she did to, after she was able to connect the dots, or find the resolve to connect the dots.

I have to say connecting dots has happened a lot to me in the last few years, luckily in nothing like as dark as this. Maybe that's why I felt a pull in this book, Rowan was discovering what it all meant & I have just been going through that process myself.

It was a good book to read & I enjoyed the descriptive prose that Maurice Gee used.

Ocean Swim Race

2010-02-27T16:54:00.000+13:00

Today was the day! Today was the day that I have been training hard for since January 7 2010.

Last year when I joined the gym I suggested to the instructor who took me through my paces that I would like to do the Ocean Swim at Corsair Bay. The instructor said "I can see you doing that & it won't hurt your knee either." So he developed a strength training program based on building upper body strength. I admit that last year things really got in the way from about July onwards & really I didn't do much of any exercise, let alone building upper body strength.

I decided this year was going to be a different year to last year & when we came back from Wanaka I decided that I would do the Ocean Swim & that I did have time to train for it. I started seriously training from the 7th January, taking the boys swimming with me during the holidays. This was easy to do because for the first time since the boys have been born I can leave both of them in the pool secure in the knowledge that not only am I legally allowed to do so but they can both swim if they get into trouble.

I had thought that I was going to swim the race in just my togs, to keep the cost down but after doing a training swim at Corsair Bay I quickly realised that was not really going to be an option. So last weekend I went and bought a swimming wetsuit & then on Tuesday & Thursday I went out to Corsair Bay to try swimming in it. Thank goodness I did try the wetsuit out first because the buoyancy it gave me made me feel like I was a little cork bobbing around in the water. It also was a lot heavier on my arms (that hadn't had any real weight training happen on them since last year) & very constricting to breathe in. Even on Thursday I came out from my swim wondering whether I would be better just to be in togs.

Today dawned bright & clear & over at Corsair Bay the water was like a millpond. Brent came to watch me & he took the photos, Scott & James had to go to James' cricket match. Brent & I watched the kids do their swim of 300m first & Brent thought that he might give it a go next year. The kids race was all in the shallows so they could put their feet down & touch the bottom if they wanted. Then it was my turn.

It was perfect conditions for my very first Ocean Swim. I got my wetsuit on full of trepidation still wondering about how sensible it was to be doing this & whether I should be doing it in my togs. I went for a warm up swim & the wetsuit felt right. I no longer felt the weight of it around my chest or on my arms so I knew that I had made the correct decision to swim in a wetsuit.

At 10:40am we had our race briefing & then we were off. The start was pretty choppy, a lot of argy bargy happening. I seemed to be either getting hit by other people's legs and arms or doing that to other people. By the first mark we were all more strung out & it was easier to swim "my swim". The next mark I found really hard to see. That white yacht with the red sails closest to beach seemed to be right in my line of view of the next mark & although a lot of people swam on the shore side of it I decided to swim behind it as to me it looked like a more straight line than what the leaders were doing which was swimming back out to sea. I rounded my last mark & knew I was on my way home, I should have been relieved but there was a stage in that part of the swim where I felt like I wasn't moving at all. I'm not sure if it was a tidal thing or quite what but the trees when I took a breath on my right didn't seem to be moving away behind me any. I just dug in & kept my arms moving a bit faster & then I seemed to be making some forward traction. I got towards the beach & there was another swimmer approachiung from my right & then it was a race up the beach & up a bit of a hill to the finish line. I just couldn't beat her, so Sadie Scott came home 4seconds ahead of me.

I have to say I am thrilled with my race time of 14minutes 36 & my worries on Thursday that my swim of 14minutes wasn't quite long enough came to nothing. When I started swimming this distance I was doing it in 18minutes 41 so I have really knocked some time off that. Here are the official results .

This picture was taken after I came back from my warm up swim.

And then there was the horrible run up the beach & up a slight hill, I cut my foot on some sharp stones on the run up the beach.

What an accomplishment & I can tell you I feel very proud of myself for getting out there & doing it.

Book Review - The Bolter

2010-02-23T11:57:00.000+13:00

Synopsis (from the book jacket)

On Friday 25th May, 1934, a forty-one-year-old woman walked into the lobby of Claridge's Hotel to meet the nineteen-year-old son whose face she did not know. Just over fifteen years earlier, as the First World War ended, Idina Sackville had shocked high society by leaving his multimillionaire father to run off to Africa with a near penniless man. Now, three more husbands later, she was back to help the son whom she had been banned from seeing.

An inspiration for Nancy Mitford's character The Bolter, painted by William Orpen, and photographed by Cecil Beaton, Sackville went on to divorce a total of five times, yet died with a picture of her first love by her bed. Her struggle to reinvent her life with each new marriage left one husband murdered and branded her the 'high priestess' of White Mischief's bed-hopping Happy Valley in Kenya. Sackville's life was so scandalous that it was kept a secret from her great-granddaughter Frances Osborne. Now, Osborne tells the moving tale of betrayal and heartbreak behind Sackville's road to scandal and return, painting a dazzling portrait of high society in the early twentieth century.

I found this a very easy book to read, which was a great surprise because I don't usually read biographies because I find them hard to get into. I found the time period fascinating & I had always thought that they were prim & proper but it would appear that there was an unspoken rule that an affair within a marriage was acceptable as long as it was with another married woman.

I found myself feeling sadened for Idina that her first husband chose to take that course of action & that really the rest of her life was left trying to find love & inevitably never really finding it. I did feel very sorry for the children of all the different marriages & I can understand why they tried to keep Idina from being mentioned a lot within the family. I think they never really understood her, & how could they when she was never around for them.

It was a really interesting read & I ended up thinking that really in some aspects our society is not as bad as we think, it is just it is discussed more these days than it was back in Edwardian England.

Week 2 recap

2010-01-16T20:53:00.000+13:00

This week has been much the same as last week.

We did get someone in to look at the wasps nest & he confirmed that the little wasps are actually more aggressive than the bigger wasps. So he came around & sprayed the nest with something & true to his word the wasps weren't to be seen the next night.

The boys & I did take my fitness thing seriously this week. I ran/walked three days this week with the boys either on their bikes ahead of me or Brent running/walking beside me. I quite like having a little running buddy. He runs at my pace but he stops a bit more often but he soon catches up again. We also went swimming together twice this week, both times in the indoor pool. I make sure they are in the end slow lane where water walkers are. I'm not sure what you really call these people. They aren't swimming but they aren't aquajogging either, instead they are just walking up & down the swim lane & then pumping their arms in the air really quickly at the end of each lap. Anyway I swim in the lane right next to them so that I can kind of keep a gentle eye on the boys. I know that they are confident in that water & with James being 8 I can leave him in the water alone but I prefer just to be able to keep an eye out in case trouble brews up. I think the boys actually enjoy the swimming because they now ask me excitedly if it is a swimming day. I also went swimming today but this time I was able to leave the boys at home. It's really nice to get changed in the females change room rather than having to go in the family one with the boys all the time.

Talking of trouble, we did have an unsavoury moment last weekend. This group of 5 boys aged from about 11 - 7 came up our driveway & started accusing my boys of stealing their trampoline. It didn't just end there, one of the boys actually pushed Brent into some bushes quite roughly. Unfortunately Scott had just left to take some stuff to the storage so it was me versus these boys. I asked them what their problem was & they said that we had stolen their trampoline, I said there is no way it's there's as it's being sitting on our lawn for years. I suggested they get off home & one turned around & said "piss off you motherf..." I couldn't believe my ears, I know I have bad language but never has it been quite that bad. Lucky Scott had noticed
them walking down our street & he got a feeling something might be up so he turned around & came back home. Just as well because that sent those boys scurrying away. Scott followed them until they went to Burnside Park. We haven't seen them back again fortunately but they have been in the neighbourhood before. The next door neighbour children have had a problem with them too. Hopefully they'll just stay away now. There's nothing like a big striding, angry looking man to put the place to rights. Ohhh, Scott my knight in shining armour....

I heard from Sharon, the real estate agent, that she has shown two different parties through mum's house. One party say the house isn't for them & the other party are a bit put off by the whole "leaky home" thing. We have been very upfront about it & they are able to get copies of the builders report that mum got after it had all been fixed up. They of course can get their own building report too. We knew that this was going to be an issue but we'll just have to hope that someone will trust the builders & buy the house.

We did look into flying up to Wellington for a day on Wednesday 20 January. Scott is flying up for work & we thought it might be nice to tag along & maybe see the zoo & Te Papa but the prices are astronomical so that's not happening. Maybe we will go & see the Wellington Phoenix play at AMI instead, at least that won't cost us $500.

We have spent today clearing out all the stuff from the garage & moving it to the storage locker so now for the first time in a very long time both cars fit in the garage. Yippee! I know our next door neighbour will be pleased because we have been using "his" parking spot since about August.

Tomorrow is my day off fitness so hopefully we can take the christmas tree down. That's right we still haven't taken the christmas tree down but it hasn't been up a month quite yet either. We were very late putting it up so I reckon it can just stay up longer in January to make up for it. Well that's my story & I'm sticking to it.

I'm looking forward to yet more of the fitness next week, proably hear yet more arguements & fighting, but we will be on the second last week of the 7 week school holiday. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it. I will survive, I will survive, but will my sanity?

Week 1 2010 recap

2010-01-16T20:17:00.000+13:00

Week 1 was a back to the grindstone week. Scott started back at work & I had to catch up on all the laundry from both the holidays & the week before Christmas when I was spending more time at mum's house than at my own.

On Monday I had a Stampin' Up! meeting with my upline where we made a really neat treat card. I must take a photo of it & put it up on my SU blog.

On Tuesday I decided to write down some personal fitness goals for the year.
1. To compete in the Sovreign Ocean Swim at Corsair Bay on February 27. I'll be swimming in the 750m race.
2. To carry on training in both swimming & running to keep my level of fitness up so that next year I can compete again in the Ocean Swim & maybe even the Contact Triathlon.
3. To lose 20kg by the end of this year.

On Wednesday Brent went around to his friend's house to play so James played happily by himself with no arguing & fighting to be heard. That in itself is a small piece of bliss.

On Thursday I started my training for the ocean swim by taking the boys down to Jellie Park to swim. It was quite a nice warm day so we started off with me swimming my required lengths in the outside pool in a rash top. The boys just puttered around in the water in the lane next to me. Then James got cold so we went to warm up in the inside pools.

On Friday all fitness activites ground to a halt because James got stung twice by a wasp. It is absolutely heart breaking to hear your child who has been being billigerent & unthinking of anyone cry out for his mum in exactly the cry he used to have when he was a toddler. I think what got to me most was his "I want mummy" He doesn't call me mummy anymore. He was poking around in the area behind the compost bins with a stick, as boys do, & then he must have disturbed a wasp's nest because a little wasp flew down the neck of his tee-shirt & stung him once on teh neck & then moved on & stung him in between his neck & shoulder. When I found him the wasp was still sitting there so I flicked it off & got James inside, then removed the stinger that was poking out of his flesh. I put on some calamine lotion, but there was no way he was going outside after that. That was the end of any thoughts of going for a run.

During the weekend we mowed the lawn & took a huge load of rubbish to the dump. We also picked up the key to our new storage unit. Hopefully this will solve our storage problems that we have at the moment while we work out just what to do with mum's stuff.

We also found out that mum's house is now up on the Bayleys Real Estate website
http://www.bayleys.co.nz/58100

Really it was a week of catching up & planning what I want to accomplish fitness wise this year. Now I just need to work out what else I want to accomplish this year rather than just sitting passively back & seeing what happens.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-05T10:58:00.000+13:00

We spent New Year's Eve in Wanaka. As you can see from the photo, it was quite cool. We did have dinner outside at the patio table & watched a mustang fly over us & do a few barrel turns & loop the loops. We decided that for the first time ever the boys could stay up until midnight to see the new decade in. James was nearly asleep by midnight but he made it.

We wish you all a happy new year!

Wednesday 16 December

2009-12-18T12:44:00.000+13:00

Wednesday was the last day of swimming lessons for the year. James came home very excited because he has moved up a level. He will now be in level 4 which is the same level that Brent is swimming at. The other big thing about level 4 is that he will now be swimming in the 25m pool all the time not in the learners pool that is 18m.

The certificate reads:
This certificate has been awarded for proficiency in the following:
- 25m freestyle with bilateral breathing
- 25m backstroke
- basic breaststroke kick
- strong butterfly kick
- water safety

Well done James & I am lookking forward to seeing you square off with your brother in the swimming stakes next year.

Sunday 13 December - Christmas Photo

2009-12-18T11:27:00.000+13:00

I am working backwards here as Friday 11 December was such a busy day.

After celebrating Brent's birthday at Drexels in Hereford Street I took the boys to Ballantynes to have a photo with santa. Unfortunately Mr 10 year old now deems himself too big to have a photo with santa so for the first time ever for James, he got a solo photo of him & santa. Obviously this isn't going to be a happening thing anymore so I'm pleased that I did at least get one of James & santa.

I always thought it was a nice to have a yearly photo of the boys & santa but I have to admit I never stopped & thought what happens when they get too old? Oh, well I'll work that out next year & this year will just have to be the way it is. Quite nice really because Brent has 2 photos of just him & santa so now James gets to have the same but just at a different age.

Monday 14 December - Remembering Nana, Brent

2009-12-16T17:29:00.000+13:00

These are the 2 decorations Brent chose. His ones were cheap so I let him have two. The star is because "nana was a star nana & because she is now up there looking down on me."

I think the red heart is pretty self explanatory.

Tuesday 15 December - In rememberance of Nana, James

2009-12-16T13:40:00.001+13:00

This month has been incredibly hard. I thought that by now the pain may have disappeared but this month has contained a lot of "firsts" & obviously there are still more to come.

The whole buying of an ornament to remember nana by came out of a flip comment made by one of the boys on about December 2nd. "I wish we had an advent calendar from nana to open." The sadness I felt was very deep & I was quickly in tears. Luckily I remembered that while clearing out mum's bedroom we did indeed find 2 advent calendars. I took one & Jo took the other. Even more lucky, given the state the garage & the house is in with boxes everywhere from both our house & mum's, is that I knew exactly where to find it.

So the boys do indeed have a last advent calendar from nana & they take turns everyday to open it. I must remember to take a photo of it.

Mum used to love Christmas & every year she would go "all out". She would get her christmas tree out & let the grandchildren have free reign in decorating it. She would have tinsel on stair banisters, a musical christmas tree that the kids loved hearing & a advent calendar of her own that the children would open with her.

We have always given the boys a christmas ornament, usually something based on their life at this stage. I am still looking for an ornament for the boys at the moment (but I am finding the whole christmas thing very, very hard) but when we were in Ballantynes getting James' photo with santa it seemed a great opportunity to maybe buy a decoration that they would want to remember nana by.

James chose this little cherub & at the moment it sits with all the angels "where nana is, mum."

June 5

2009-11-18T14:53:00.000+13:00

Her function is to sit and be admired. - Georgina Strickland Gates

Mo sitting in the window of the spare bedroom, surveying her kingdom but more importantly sitting in the sunshine to warm up.

Monday 16 November - Sick Child

2009-11-17T11:39:00.000+13:00

James woke up at 2am to tell us that he wasn't feeling very well. We sent him to the toilet while Scott got out the ice cream container for beside his bed. Poor boy wasn't very well at all yesterday & after last week's episode with Brent I decided not to risk sending him to school. He spent all day in bed, either sleeping or just reading or sucking his thumb & quietly talking to Pooh & Bridget. He didn't keep anything down, water or food, until we gave him a couple of pieces of toast at dinner time. Luckily he kept them down & I gave him Pamol later when I went to bed & that stayed down too.

I've kept him at home today but I have to say he's very perky & is eating & keeping everything down. I just love 24 hour sickness things like this, at least it is over quickly. There is a huge change in how James handled being sick this time, he's matured. There's no more throwing up everywhere, crying & sitting in the mess. Now he just matter of factly throws up, cleans himself up & gets back into bed. It is incredibly helpful to me as I no longer have to go through that horrible feeling of wanting to be sick at the same time.

Wenesday 11 November - Front garden

2009-11-13T17:24:00.000+13:00

It's been a while since I took a photo of the view from my front door but with spring coming to a close it's probably a good time to take one. As you can see the wisteria is still in flower & now my iceburg roses have started to flower as well. Thankfully it rained because really the garden is quite dry & it must be almost time for me to turn on the automatic sprinkler. Behind that table is a lemon tree & it is just laden with fruit at the moment. The lawn needs to be mowed weekly now because the daisies in it are attracting the bees & James just loves to run around in bare feet. I think we had a milder winter than we have been having recently & nothing has really been killed off & everything is just bursting into new growth. Next year I will have to seriously consider getting a lot of the trees pruned right back because the heights they will be at will be starting to block of some of the sun coming inot our rooms.

Tuesday 10 November - A Christmas Card

2009-11-13T13:50:00.000+13:00

Over the weekend I found some time to complete the Mojo Monday sketch #111. Here's the sketch...

Here's my version.

All product I used is current Stampin' Up! product & a full detailed breakdown of what paper & what measurements can be found here on my Stampin' Up! website.

Monday 9 November - James' Original Haiku

2009-11-10T13:52:00.000+13:00

This is the original copy of James' haiku that has been published in the NZ Poetry Society Anthology called "Moments in the Whirlwind."

The judges comment was: "I would like to give a special commendation to one handwritten & illustrated haiku by perhaps our youngest entrant [James Criglington]. His/her haiku while obviously a familiar yet new take on perhaps the most popular haiku of all time gives us a wonderful picture of the author's delight in his recent understanding of the art form:

the little old frog

sat on the black wonky bridge

splash! Splash! silence there [. . .]

Friday 30th October

2009-10-31T21:31:00.000+13:00

I have finally got the main room looking the way I want it, more especially having my Stampin' Up! cards & projects on display but not taking up half the room. This sideboard used to be in the lounge until we had the big change around of furniture. I have always wanted the sideboard where it is now but I'm not sure why we didn't have it there originally. My guess is that as the kids grew things that are in it are now no longer ripe for the picking & it is "safe" to have it in the main room. It also makes sense to have it in the main room, where our dining table is, because the drawers hold the good cutlery, the placemats & the cupboards hold the good dining set.

Tuesday 27 October - Creating something Christmassy

2009-10-28T16:50:00.000+13:00

Is Christmassy a word? Oh well it is for me. I managed to carve out some time yesterday to create a new project using Stampin' Up! product. Should I show you a photo or just ask you to follow this link & then click on projects?

If you click on the link it will give you the list of what I used to create it & maybe I will make one up at my Christmas Extravaganza workshops that are happening in November.

Monday 26th October

2009-10-27T12:09:00.000+13:00

This photo really belongs on Sunday because that is when it was taken but we had 2 different events happen on Sunday so I thought I had better document both.

Erin, Neil, Robin, Phyllis, D & M came back from Sydney & had a stop over in Christchurch before heading on their way to Invercargill. We don't often all get together so it was a perfect opportunity to have a photo of the whole family.

New Website

2009-10-24T16:44:00.002+13:00

I have a new Stampin' Up! website that is up & running, so I have been working on getting it looking more like my own. If you would like to take a look it is here: http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/katscraps/

Wednesday 21 October - Our Birthday Present

2009-10-21T14:41:00.000+13:00

Happy Birthday Scott!

We decided to buy a joint birthday present for ourselves this year. My much loved Canon 300D is starting to get a bit the worse for wear. The external flash mount is a bit out of shape & with the advances in technology it is getting to be a very "old" camera. So out with the old, not really we have kept it for the boys if they want to use it when they are older, & in with the new! I went into town this morning to have coffee with Scott & while there we picked up our brand new camera! The lenses we already have fit this one however the memory card & the battery unit are different.

So now my photo numbers are going to start back at number 0001, I got up to 8936 on my other camera. This photo is actually photo 8933 so not quite the last one I took.

Saturday 17 October

2009-10-18T16:18:00.000+13:00

We are still moving stuff. The reason it is taking so long is that we are doing a weed out of all the stuff that we no longer want or need & hopefully we'll be able to sell some of it for a dollar or two on Trade Me. At the moment I am selling some of my retired Stampin' Up! stamps on there & shortly I'll be adding books & cds. I am thinking that a great big purge of my craft room is in order too so maybe some of my scrapping papers & cardstock will end up on there too.

Another room that needs a good purge is the boys' play room. See that big white container it is full of lego & then there is another the same size also full of lego. I am getting to a stage where I really hate lego, I hate finding it all over the house, I hate standing on it, I hate it getting sucked up the vaccuum. However it is one toy that gives James so much fun. James is a different child to Brent. Brent will happily watch tv or play on the computer, but not James really. Give him some lego & he can be amused for hours. I realise it is good for him but there is only so much lego a mother can take strewn through out the house.

Friday 16th October - Battery Charger

2009-10-17T17:39:00.000+13:00

Well I thought I had better take a photo of this little fellow seen as he caused so much heartache recently. I lost him & it meant i had to resort to Brent's little oint & shoot camera that seemed to be difficult for me to hold still, I always had blurry photos. Scott found the battery charger in amongst the "stuff" that has been pushed from room to room while the house was getting fixed. I guessed it would be somewhere but there were so many boxes to search through. I am so glad that we have found it, now I can use my big camera again. Yippee!

Wednesday 14 October - My early birthday present!

2009-10-15T19:22:00.000+13:00

A couple of months ago I signed up to get the Club Scrap Retreat in a Box. It was shipped out of Wiscounsin last week & to my great surprise I received it yesterday. Wow! Was the first thing I said when I saw the size of the box. It was big! I then spent a couple of hours unpacking it & oohhing & ahhing over everything in it.

There was a cake box that had a small personalised pink hand towel rolled up & encicrled by paper that made it look like a cup cake, even with a plastic cherry on the top.

There were three different scrapbook kits, a crop in style photo organiser (one of the big ones that holds photos in one section & then in the other there is room for 12 inch paper), a thermal water bottle (with the Club Scrap logo) and 6 projects for me to sit & make.

It really was like Christmas & now i just have to find time to make the projects & maybe I'll be able to show you them or even make them again in Stampin' Up! paper.

Tuesday 13 October - Freesias

2009-10-14T16:13:00.000+13:00

These freesias have just decided to start blooming, they are actually bulbs from Grandmother Crigs garden so they are almost a family hierloom. They also have the most fantastic scent.

June 4 - Junior School Cross Country

2009-10-13T14:23:00.000+13:00

Well after several postponements we finally got to have the junior school cross country. Mum was able to come & watch. James had to race against the year 4 boys so he was a bit annoyed that he only came in 12th but that was a great run. This photo is of him nearly crossing the line & as you can see even at the end of the race he was smiling. Got to love my little smiler!

Monday 12 October - Wisteria

2009-10-13T10:30:00.000+13:00

I've only just noticed that our wisteria that hangs over the pergola at the entrance way to the house is starting to bloom. It looks so pretty when it is in full bloom, but gee do those little flowers go everywhere including inside the house. It looks like my daily sweep of the porch has to start up again.

Friday 9th October - Rearranging Furniture

2009-10-11T13:10:00.000+13:00

The good thing about having the carpet done is that really big peices of furniture have to be emptied out so that they can get moved out of the room to be carpeted. What this means is that when we finally got to put things back in the various rooms it wasn't such an effort to try to rearrange rooms differently. The "blue room" is a good example of this. We used to have the entertainment unit sitting against the wall opposite the large window, with the 3 seater couch underneath that window, a 2 seater couch where the entertainment unit is now & a chair against the doors that open out to the patio.

We've decided to change that around so that we can fit a desk from mum's in the same room & we will be able to put a laptop on it. The boys now have homework that includes internet use so it is best if they have their own computer that is linked to the computer but right beside Scott's computer so we can monitor what the boys are doing on the internet.

Thursday 8 October

2009-10-09T17:05:00.000+13:00

The in laws were all flying out to Sydney via Christchurch & Wellington so the boys & I took the opportunity to go & see them while they were at Christchurch airport. As we arrived at the airport we heard the "wok, wok" of a helicopter. I was quite surprised to see not 1 but 3 Iriqouis helicopters coming in to land at the Defence area of the airport.

We went inside the airport & found the in laws & the boys had a lot of fun playing on the playground pieces with Danja & Magnus. Once we had seen them to their gate we went past the Antarctic Base & were lucky enough to see the last helicopter fly off down the runway.

Tuesday 6 October - Carpet is Done!

2009-10-08T11:28:00.000+13:00

We only had one man in to finish off the carpet & I have to say I was worried that it really wasn't going to be completed in the day. It was finished at 4pm! The carpet looks fantastic, it smells of that nice new carpet smell & because we bought the thickest underlay it is beautifully soft.

This photo is an up close view of the carpet. We opted for a textured but multi coloured carpet. It is primarily brown but it has blue running through it.

The house looks fantastic all carpeted & is a mile away from what we had on February 11.

This is where we started from:

We cracked open a bottle of bubbly (lemonade for the boys) to celebrate the end of our very long & at times arduous 8 months. It still brings tears of joy to my eyes today when I think that it is all over apart from moving everything back into the house.

It has been a very emotional journey for me, not at all helped by having other family issues occurring at the same time. I am sure that this has made me stronger somehow & I am hoping that it has also brought Scott & I closer. I know there were times when we were biting each others heads off, but we got through this together & he has been a tower of strength for me & I hope I was for him.

Next time I complain I have a boring life, you all have my permission to remind me of 2009 & how life is sometimes a lot more pleasant when it is boring & predictable!

Here's hoping this is the last post with the label "fire" on it!

Monday 5 October - Carpet laying Day 1

2009-10-07T14:17:00.000+13:00

Monday was the first day of carpet laying. Carpet Court arrived at 8:30 & immediately the 2 men got to work ripping up the old carpet & underlay. They got both big living areas plus a spare bedroom & the hallway up to that room all done by about 2pm & then they left. Apparently they didn't have anymore carpet with them so they weren't even interested in lifting the carpet in the other rooms. The good thing is that we were able to start shifting all the things from one end of the house down to the other end. I left at 7:15 to go to a craft creations meeting leaving Scott to move the rest of the stuff.

Geocaching Layout

2009-10-05T13:29:00.000+13:00

This layout was created with all Stampin' Up! product. If you want to see a larger version or find out more please visit my Stampin' Up! blog post here

Sunday 4 October - Moving Furniture

2009-10-05T13:26:00.000+13:00

In preparation for the carpet layers coming on Monday we moved a lot of belongings to other storage places. Spare beds have been taken to the storage unit, a lot of my craft supplies etc have been taken up to mum's & a lot of the more essential furniture got taken out to the garage.

I have to say the whole refurbishment of the house has been a long tiring & madening process. I am getting to the end of my tether with it & it drives me nutty when I can't find things, for example my camera battery charger. I know I have had it at our house, but I can't tell you when I last used it or where I put it. I'm upset I've lost the thing because the other cameras don't take nearly as good photos, & of course as much as I would love to go out & buy a new one I know that somewhere between the storage locker, my house & mum's house there will be my charger. It just annoys the heck out of me that I can't find it.

It seems like a lot of work but I will be so pleased when we are finally back to rights in this house. This house has been topsy turvy ever since the fire in February so it is the light at the end of the tunnel that is shining now. I have to keep reminding myself when I get upset when I can't find things that we are so nearly there. We are so close to the end, I've just got to hold on to that thought.

Thursday 24 September - Virgin Earth

2009-09-25T11:46:00.005+12:00

I've just finished another book. I just love reading Philippa Gregory books. I seem to get lost in them & have to consciously put the book down to do other things.

Virgin Earth follows on from Earthly Joys, this time following John Tradescant the younger. It is based during the reign of Charles I & the battles between the parliamentrians & the royalists. It was a time when you had to watch what you said & what religion you had, if you didn't like it & you could afford it, you could catch a ship to Virginia & try to be one of the first settlors there. John tried to live his life in both places & determine where his sense of loyalty lay. Of course it took to the end of the book for him to find that out.

As with her other books I was drawn in & found it hard to put down.

Next book I'm reading is Tribute by Nora Roberts.

Tuesday 22 September - Skiing

2009-09-23T10:59:00.003+12:00

The boys went skiing yesterday & up the mountain they had someone taking photos. They had several photos taken & this one is the one I liked. They had a wonderful time skiing together & James was very excited about skiing through white out conditions at one stage. The day had very strange weather, sunny one moment & then cold & snowing the next. What it does mean is that the boys will now be very used to skiing in flat visability. It hasn't put them off at all because they are up there again today.

Monday 21st September - Nor west in Wanaka

2009-09-22T14:06:00.003+12:00

It's not too surprising that this time when we have come down to Wanaka, we have been hit by nor' wests. The nor'west in Wanaka is very cold & prone to drop rain on us, unlike the lovely warm nor'wests of Christchurch. The 3 boys went skiing despite the weather & at times they were skiing through falling snow. Scott put the boys into kids club so that meant that Scott got to ski by himself all day & got 19 runs, a personal record for him. The boys only got 6 in the 4 hours of ski lessons that they had. They all came home very excited & ready to go up again today.

This photo is the weather that I had. Spatterings of rain & mainly cloudy, windy conditions.

A new layout

2009-09-17T14:52:00.003+12:00

I went scrapping in the weekend & although I didn't get much done, this layout did get finished. This is Scott all dressed up for our formal night on the cruise (that was a few years ago now).

Tuesday 15 September - Thrush in the garden

2009-09-16T13:36:00.005+12:00

The birds are really starting to make a racket at about 5am. I think most of them are starlings & blackbirds but yesterday I saw this thrush. I kind of like thrushes, they seem like a chubby quiet type of bird. I particularly like their speckled breast.

Thursday 10 September - Hair cut

2009-09-11T09:45:00.006+12:00

Yesterday was my regular cut and colour so this time I decided to actually take a photo of the salon. Next time I might even pluck up the courage to get a photo of me with my colour sitting waiting to "take".

I love this time, it's my time to relax & catch up with all the gossip from not only the neighbourhood, it's amazing what the stylists now about the neighbourhood, but also on the celebrities via the likes of Women's Day & Women's Weekly magazines. In my life it's the only time I get to sit & read these sort of magazines.

I have these cuts & colours every 5-6 weeks & I found out it is only 14 weeks to christmas! I have made all my hair appointments up to christmas yesterday, only 3 more to go!

It's amazing how quickly the year has shot by, especially this term, my boys finish school next week for the end of term, I feel as if I have missed it all by being in a strange kind of funk.

I suppose it is part of the grieving process where you kind of live from day to day not realising how fast those days are disappearing, just getting up out of bed, doing what you need to do but not really able to think ahead. I keep feeling like I should just "get with it". I get notes from various teachers saying "parents please get your child to do this..." & end up feeling guilty because I've been letting the boys down. I can barely manage to keep the house clean & tidy & coercing the boys, especially James, to do his homework without having teachers send home notes like "please get your child to hand his spelling homework in daily", "please get your child to learn his 2 times, 5 times, 10 times table" I feel so overwhelmed by it all & then I feel guilty for letting James down, but really can't the teachers just give us a break. I'm trying my hardest to "get a grip" but extra demands from school just don't help.

I just want to get away from all the demands, the house still demands attention & probably will do until after the carpet has been put down & the furniture back in place; Scott's mysterious ailment that has still not been fixed but has now cost us $450 for specialised antibiotics that aren't covered by Pharmac & because of that, not covered by the medical insurance; James' learning difficulties; Brent's horrible, surly attitude; & of course trying to clean out mum's house.

When will it all just stop & let me catch a breath?

I need to breathe, I need to just STOP!

Wednesday 9 September - Organic box

2009-09-10T10:02:00.003+12:00

I thought it would be a good time to take a photo of what's in the box at the moment.

This week's contents are:

- potatoes

- pumpkin

- parsnips

- brocolli

- celery

- spinach

- mandarines

- apples

Tuesday 8 September - Happy Laundry Maid?

2009-09-09T12:18:00.003+12:00

In an effort to get the boys to help out more around the house I have offered a 10cent reward if the boys hang out the washing before going to school. This is the one job around the house that the boys seem to like doing. Yesterday Brent hung out the clothes & what you can't see in this photo is that he was singing the whole time. I must say that's a nice change to the surly attitude that he has been having recently.

Monday 7th September - Boys Choice

2009-09-08T10:55:00.002+12:00

Every Monday afternoon I have to pick Brent up from school at 4:30 because he has had fencing. We then carry on through to town & pick Scott up from work. During this time, the boys have had a lot of fun taking photos along the route. This particular photo was taken by Brent. The flowering cherries along Harper Ave are in full bloom now & look spectacular. Brent wasn't the only one taking photos of them. I think that all the blossom will be gone in the next nor' west but at the moment the avenue looks beautiful.

RIP Mum

2009-09-05T21:35:00.004+12:00

It is one day past a month since mum died. I went through my photos today to find the last photo that I took of her. Aptly it was on Mother's Day & when I stop & think about it, it really wasn't too many months before her death. I found a beautiful quickpage from Raspberry Road Designs that I thought was perfect for mum. Funnily enough the quick page came from the Tea for Two kit, mum was always a tea drinker & on Mondays her sister & her would sit down & have tea for the two of them & discuss their lives.

credits: Raspberry Road - Tea for Two quick page; Meryl Bartho, Digital Scrapbook Place - Digital Dates

Saturday 5th September - Creating!!!

2009-09-05T17:14:00.006+12:00

Yippee I have finally felt like creating something. Yes it is a very quick & easy quick page from Club Scrap but at least I have sat down & created something.

credits: Gimme a Ring Quick drop layout from Club Scrap digital.

Stampin' Up - Ribbon Promotion

2009-09-04T09:45:00.002+12:00

Stampin' Up! have released the details of their September promotion. You can find all the pertinent details on my Stampin' Up! blog.

The basics of it is:
Buy $120 of product during September (excluding shipping)
or
Host a workshop with a sales total of $700

& you get a free ribbon bundle.

Check out the details here:
http://katscraps123.blogspot.com/2009/09/septembers-promotion-ribbon.html

Contact me if you would like to place an order, or even better hold a workshop.

Wednesday 2 September - Nor' west

2009-09-03T10:15:00.004+12:00

It was another nor' west day yesterday. This particular wind direction brings the planes into the airport on the "northwest runway". What it means is that all the planes from B767 size downward come flying past our house. The boys used to love it when they were younger going outside when they saw a plane fly by. In Christchurch it is a bit of a cheap pasttime to actually park your car beside this runway & watch the planes come in to land & take off. We've had many takeaway meals out there just watching the planes.

Tuesday 1st September - A good washing Day

2009-09-02T11:14:00.006+12:00

It was a nor'west again yesterday so I put a load of laundry on the line to dry before going up to mum's to spend the day decluttering.

Saturday 29 August - Last day of Football

2009-08-30T14:41:00.002+12:00

It was the last game of football for the season so I decided to take my camera & watch both games. It was a lovely sunny day, warm with hardly any wind, one of those magical spring days that Christchurch can turn on. I did take photos of Brent but I really think the shot of the day is actually one of James.

This photo is one of those instances where things can be decieving. No James really wasn't ready to head the ball, no he hadn't even just done that. James spent a lot of his game running around watching the ball & even though it looks like he actually may make contact with the ball in this photo, he never did. At least he looks good while running after that ball!

Friday 28 August - More from the Garden

2009-08-29T16:50:00.003+12:00

In a shady part of the garden these little violets are starting to come out.

Thursday 27 August - Another Spring like day

2009-08-28T11:32:00.002+12:00

The weather this week has been very spring like, northwesterlies & warm. I decided to take a wander around the garden, while waiting for the CCC building inspector to come in the morning, & take some photos of what's in flower at this time.

One of the most obvious flowers out is all the camelias. I have a lot of pink ones but my favourite is this white one. It doesn't stay this white for long because they tend to go brown very quickly.

Wednesday 26 August - Mental Health Day

2009-08-27T09:54:00.003+12:00

James & I both took a mental health day yesterday. What that means for James was that he just stayed in his room zoning out (no tv), playing with Lego & in the afternoon he even had a sleep. What it means for me is taking things slowly, not worrying if the laundry is running 2 days behind schedule, the dishes aren't washed & dinner isn't in the crock pot. It also meant time to just wander around the garden on a nice sunny day & take stock of what is good in life & what makes me happy in the garden.

At the moment the Daphne bush is in full bloom & the scent always puts a smile on my dile.

Monday 24th August - James in Charge

2009-08-26T16:30:00.004+12:00

On a Monday afternoon Brent has fencing until 4:30 & then we go & pick Scott up from work. This week I let the boys be in charge of taking photos that they like along the route. We were sitting at traffic lights when I saw this mini bus pull up behind us. James loved the penguin on the front, so he took this photo.

Tuesday 25 August - The Christmas Pudding

2009-08-26T13:26:00.003+12:00

I spend my Tuesdays up at mum's house decluttering. I can't say that I have got very far, but yesterday I went into the pantry. I did manage to clear out 3 shelves of the pantry & right at the back of one of the shelves there was this find!

There is actually a story to this pudding. Mum has made the christmas pudding ever since Grandpa died. Last year she made two puddings for Christmas Day. When Christmas Day rolled around she couldn't find one of her puddings & she was quite upset about it at the time because she felt she wasn't pulling her weight in providing the pudding section of the christmas meal. She did make her pudding & in her way she "put it away in a safe place" only to find that it was such a tricky place to hide it that she couldn't find it.

Jo & I found it yesterday & as Jo & family will be in Australia for Christmas she said that I could have it. I am thinking that we will take it down to Invercargill & we can all enjoy her last gift to us on Christmas Day.

Sunday 23 August - New Coffee Maker

2009-08-24T15:43:00.003+12:00

When my grandmother died we bought ourselves a new coffee maker, so why muck around with tradition. We bought ourselves this nice slimline coffee maker that also grinds the coffee beans if we want. I like that it can be programmed to go in the morning so when I wake up my coffee is hot & ready & waiting for me.

Nana - Missed but not forgotten

2009-08-22T16:22:00.006+12:00

Last night on the way back from La Porchetta Brent looked up out of the window & saw a star.

Brent: Nana's star is there!

James: Nana isn't a star

Brent: I think she is.

James: Well I think Nana is the sun so she's not here.

Brent: The sun?

James: Yes the sun, because nana was bright.

Today after football my tired littlest man saw a spot of sun on the carpet & lay in it sucking his thumb & said "Nana's here now."

Friday 21st August - Family Fun

2009-08-22T13:15:00.004+12:00

It was Brent's turn to take a draw out of the Family Fun jar & he drew out "dinner at La Porchetta". After we had registered the boys for tennis at Te Kura we went to La Porchetta. The place was just humming but luckily Scott had booked us a table. La Porchetta is an family oriented Italian restaurant. The menu consisted of pizza, pasta & seafood.

The boys shared a bowl of wedges & then Brent had a small pineapple pizza & James had an entree sized spagetti bolognaise. Neither boy was able to finish his meal. Scott & I shared a garlic bread & a medium salmon pizza. The dinners were delicious & while eating it I think we nutted out a plan for Brent's 10th birthday this year.

Creating - A Wiper Card

2009-08-21T09:33:00.003+12:00

I made a wiper card yesterday.

Here's a sneek peak...

Take a closer look at it here.

Wednesday 19 August - Cloudless Day

2009-08-20T10:11:00.004+12:00

Yahooo! Yesterday was the first day in nearly a week that we have had a cloudless day all day! I thought my photo would look odd as just an expanse of blue so I decided to take a photo of the forsythia that's just coming into flower.

Tuesday 18th August - Rubbish

2009-08-19T13:39:00.005+12:00

Jo & I went up to mum's yesterday to start clearing out her house. I took up some old brown rubbish bags & a chilly bin. I thought we could start with the less personal stuff, the chest freezer. Typically mum's chest freezer was packed & we found food dated back to 2001! I remember her commenting to me how one of my great aunts kept little pottles of food in her freezer & that she would make sure she didn't do it. I'll give it to mum that the pottles weren't quite as small as my great aunt's but there were lots of small containers holding small amounts of left over food.

We have an extra wheelie bin that we pay to get emptied twice a month so I came back home with a car load of black plastic bags filled with food to throw out. I was very surprised when I tried to get them into the wheelie bin to find that the bin was totally full. It certainly weighed a lot to move to the curb. I only hope that the truck's lifting mechanism can lift it today.

James' Effort Card

2009-08-18T14:38:00.002+12:00

Here's what James' card looked like, not too bad considering the uproar that this house has been in all this term.

Saturday 16 August - It's True!

2009-08-16T12:02:00.003+12:00

I had a dream on Thursday night that I was being told that mum was alive. I woke up with quite a start but in my head I know she is dead. I saw her dead body at the hospital. Yesterday, as next of kin, I got the death certificate in the mail. So it is true, my mum has died & now even the country acknowledges her death.

August 14 - Tapespec

2009-08-15T14:29:00.002+12:00

This amazing plastic stuff is what all our walls & furniture get covered in while the painters paint the ceiling. At the moment it is all rolled up around our walls of both the living areas of the house. This is what it looks like when it is hanging down over closets.

Thursday 13th August - Repainted Hallway

2009-08-15T10:11:00.003+12:00

The painters were in today, in force. We had about 5 of them on the job, as opposed to the 1 that we had last week. They really want to get the job done. So they finished off the hallway which looks so much brighter in this shade of yellow, called Lemon Delicious.

They also started in James' room which was a surprise. We came home to find James' bed all covered up in clingfilmy type of plastic that is to protect furniture from getting paint dropped on it. We got them to move James' mattress into the spare bedroom so now James is sleeping on a mattress on the floor. He thinks it is fun, so that is good because quite honestly I am so over this whole fire fiasco, I can't wait for this all to be over & done with.

Brent's Effort Card

2009-08-14T15:00:00.004+12:00

I have finally learnt that I can open a PDF file in Photoshop elements & turn it into a jpeg. What that means is that I can now post Brent's emailed effort card on to my blog. The effort card has just been sent out & I am thrilled at how much effort he has put in this term despite all the horrible things that we've had to put up with.

Remember to click on the picture to see it slightly larger.

Wednesday 12 August - HRV

2009-08-13T16:42:00.003+12:00

The HRV got reinstalled on Tuesday. Unfortunately one of the installers stood on the ceiling & a large crack formed. I pointed it out to them so they put some plaster on it. They came back yesterday to sand it off. At least that particular ceiling still needed to be repainted so it will be covered over when the painters get to it tomorrow.

Tuesday 11 August - Tuesday's at 5

2009-08-12T09:21:00.003+12:00

Tuesday's at 5pm is a Medbury School Music Department soiree. It gives all the music pupils the chance to show to family & friends what they are learning. I suppose if Brent was learning a guitar, violin, flute, nearly any instrument except drums I would know what he is learning. We haven't invested in a drum kit for him yet because there's no point spending all that money for him to give it up at the end of the year. At the moment he loves playing the drums so maybe it is a Christmas & birthday present option.

I have a hard time trying to understand what he is doing when his practice is just tapping his drumsticks on a table & chair. My eyes were opened last night as he got the chance to show us what it sounds like behind a drum kit. He played really well.

One week ago mum died & this was the first school outing since her death & I was doing so well until the music director asked if there were any other grandparents in the audience that had missed hearing their grandson play. It is sad that mum didn't quite make it to hear Brent play on the drums but I am sure she was with him in spirit & watching down on him.

Monday 10 August - Crocus

2009-08-11T14:31:00.002+12:00

I really feel as if I have hardly been home in the last two weeks, so it was quite a surprise to see this lovely crocus in flower.

Sunday 9th August - Amy's Party

2009-08-10T13:45:00.003+12:00

Yesterday was Amy's 7th birthday party. It was held at the Christchurch School of Gymnastics. The children got to go on beams, bars, rings & trampolines. It was a lot of fun for them all. After that there was food & drink including a icecream cake as the birthday cake.

Tuesday 28 July - Wardrobe

2009-07-31T18:22:00.003+12:00

What a wonderful surprise today after the gib stopper had left. He vacuumed up all his dust from sanding back the gib stop & I was able to go down to my bedroom. To my surprise I have the wardrobe door back in their rightful place. For a while now they have been sitting at my back door so that they wouldn't get broken when the ceiling & roof came off. It is almost looking inhabitable down in that end of the house now.

Monday 27 July - Spring's Coming

2009-07-28T13:15:00.002+12:00

This is a photo of some of the buds on my daphne bush. It really looks like it is going to have a lot of flowers.

Sturday 25 July

2009-07-26T11:49:00.003+12:00

Today's photo is really more about what happened on Friday. The electrician & the gob stopper were the only people at the house on Friday. The electrician has cut the holes in the ceiling for the light fixtures while the gib stopper was doing more gib stopping.

Friday 24 July - Slava Snowshow

2009-07-25T10:45:00.006+12:00

On Thursday the Christchurch Arts Festival opened & one of the shows that is playing through the festival is Slava's Snowshow. I had no idea what it was really about but thought I would take the boys to one "cultural" show this year. The booklet said that the snowshow had clowns so I thought this might be right up the boys alley especially after they had heard Scott & I talking about Cirque Du Soliel. I bought the tickets online so I was a bit worried that I might have bought seats that had beams or poles in front of them, because they didn't have a map for me to see what seats I was buying. However the boys seemed kind of excited.

The excitement when I picked the boys up from school yesterday was palpable, James had been counting down the sleeps since Tuesday & then Brent was very excited when he got in the car because a couple of boys in his class went on Thursday night & had told him it was awesome. We went home & had a couple of chicken drumsticks to eat beacuse the show started at 6pm (a bit of a difficult time when it comes to kids & dinner) & then headed into town to meet up with Scott. We then all walked down to the Issac Theatre Royal. When we stepped into the foyer there was white strips of paper on the floor & a lot of people milling around. We were in the stalls row B seats 7 - 10. The door to our seats was still closed so we bought a couple of programmes & shortly after the doors opened. We went in & the usher told us we had wonderful seats & she was right! We were in the second to front row, Scott sat in the aisle seat so kind of over to the side, but not where we couldn't see. In fact we were very close to a speaker stack that was playing the sound of a train coming in & leaving a station. It was quite loud but not scary. There was white paper on the floor & a bit on the seats & we wondered what we were in for.

The show started with that train music & dry ice that floated off the stage & covered us. James sat next to Scott & cuddled his jersey & blocked his ears but he couldn't hide his eyes, he was mesmerised. Brent was just as mesmerised but he sat through it all & didn't flinch until he got some water sprinkled at him. I won't go into much more detail in case some of you get to go. There was some loud music that went right through us (probably because we were so close to the speaker stack) & James got scared once when a clown came off the stage & climbed on to the seats right next to him. Otherwise it was a fantastic show! The boys both loved it & at the end they went & shook the clown's hand, because he was just sitting on the stage beside us.

This photo is in the 1st half of the show & those are bubbles that the clown is catching in his net. Those bubbles came towards us & the boys just had fun popping them & watching them.

I have to say this is one show that I would recommend front row seats for. We didn't have to crane our necks & the front rows can almost become participants which makes it very exciting for the children but also for the adults that want to be child like for an hour & a half.

People were saying it was better than Cirque du Soliel I just say that they are 2 different shows. Cirque has different people doing a range of different circus feats, this show was about 6 clowns who mimed & let us enjoy being childlike for a while.

Thursday 24 July - Progress!

2009-07-24T10:42:00.002+12:00

Wow look what we have now! We have a fully batted house that has ceilings & even .... gib stopping! The difference in the temperature of the house is amazing, it is no longer frigid in the house. I reckon those batts went in just at the right time too, because there's a cold southerly blowing & it is supposed to get cold soon.

Wednesday 22 July - James the Star

2009-07-23T10:19:00.003+12:00

As a reward for being published in the poetry book we gave James the red plate. It was nachos for dinner after having been to a swimming lesson at 5:30pm.

On Tuesday he got to stand up in school assembly while the principal made a "special mention" of his achievement. Apparently after assembly a lot of the year 5 boys (Brent's year) that know him came up to him & congratulated him. Then at lunchtime a group of year 1 boys (Andrew's year) came up to him & asked him all about his poem. I think that it really made his day being recognised throughout the various parts of the school for his wonderful achievement.

Tuesday 21 July - Look what we've got!

2009-07-21T22:00:00.002+12:00

Yes we have now got a brand new hot water cylinder for our ensuite. We also have our water plumbed back on. The electrician was here today sorting out all the wiring. He needs to come back tomorrow & do more electrical work & then I suppose yet again once the gib is all on. At this stage it looks like we will have a ceiling on & new pink batts in on Friday with gib stopping happening next week. HRV are booked to come in on 11 August so maybe we will soon have a warm house again without it costing us a fortune.

Monday 20 July - Go Cart Fun

2009-07-21T16:56:00.002+12:00

The boys had Monday off school as it was a teacher only day. James had a lot of fun finding a new place to call his hideout & watch the builders from. In the afternoon he found the go cart & also found out that by getting moving backwards & forwards on it while standing up, he can get a little forward momentum.

On the house front, we have all new tin on the roof & even building paper going on inside the roof. Our house is nearly fully watertight we just have a little bit at the end of the roof to get fixed up & then it will be watertight.

Friday 17 July - Excitement!

2009-07-17T17:12:00.003+12:00

This is going to be my photo for today, not that it is really a photo or one that I took.

We have just got back home from sitting in the hot pools at Wanaka to find a wonderful email from Miss Flynn, James' teacher. This is what the email contained. Click on the picture to view it at a bigger size.

When we get to Christchurch James will be getting the red plate!

Thursday 16 July - Hawea View

2009-07-17T12:35:00.004+12:00

Not much of a view though! It was a cold, grey drizzly day so we decided to take Robin & Phyllis & go geocaching. We tried to do a multi cache around the front of Lake Hawea but we couldn't find the second waypoint. Instead we sat & had lunch & then tried one final time to find that elusive way point.

We didn't find it so we headed off to Hawea View to do this cache. We have tried this cache 3 times previously & each time we have been stumped by the tour buses that pull up & everyone taking their touristy photos. This time we waited for a car to pull off & then retrieved the cache. Then the inevitable happened just as we were going to rehide it a car pulled up. We got out the cakes & sat down & had something to eat & of course a photo, while we waited for that couple to leave. Eventually we managed to re hide the cache.

Wednesday 15 July - My 3 Boys

2009-07-17T11:15:00.003+12:00

Yes I know one of these "boys" is actually my husband but really what man isn't a boy at heart?

Tuesday - Very Frosty

2009-07-16T16:55:00.002+12:00

What a very frosty morning, it was about -3C. The boys didn't mind though because they went off skiing with Scott. I got the whole house to myself which was just bliss. I was able to listen to the radio & catch up on the housework & I even managed to place an order for Stampin' Up!

Monday 13 July - Skiing

2009-07-15T11:28:00.003+12:00

One of the wonderful things about having a holiday home in Wanaka is that it is great no matter what season of the year it is (maybe except around the equinox when it is windy). In winter there are 2 really close skifields - Treble Cone for the more advanced skier, & Cardrona for the beginner/intermediate skier. The boys have only just started to learn to ski so Cardrona is our skifield of choice at the moment.

Monday was a perfect day for skiing, not a cloud in the sky & the snow was lovely winter powder. We arrived up the mountain at 9:40 but we weren't early enough to get into the top carpark. We had to catch a ride in a shuttle, which happens to be a trailer pulled behind a ute, up to the ticket office. We decided to put the boys into Kids Club for the day. At Kids Club the boys get 2 2 hour ski lessons plus lunch & are generally looked after from the time they arrive until the time they are picked up from their ski instructor.

Scott took off & went skiing by himself leaving me to sit in the cafeteria & think about the possibility of getting my knee looked at seriously so I can ski with the boys.

The boys both started off on the beginners slope but Brent quickly moved up to the pomma slope. By lunchtime both boys were on the pomma slope & by the end of the day both boys had down a run using the chairlifts. The boys both know how to stop & turn doing snowplow.

This photo is on their very last run of the day.

Sunday 12 July - Fun Geocache

2009-07-12T15:34:00.004+12:00

There has been one geocache that was hidden on 30 January this year that we haven't been able to do & it has been bugging us. This geocache has a level 4 difficulty for terrain (with level 5 being the hardest) & the reason is that it is on an island. Today we decided to take a crack at it. We got the little dinghy, that has an outboard on it, out of the garage & decided to see if the engine would still go. We drove around to Waterfall Creek ramp & launched off for Ruby Island. James was very excited about the whole expedition & was even more pleased when Scott let him drive the boat back again.

What I never knew about Ruby Island is that there was a cabaret built on the island during the 1920's & it attracted parties from the "mainland" until it was burnt down. All that remains now are the rocks showing where it would have been.

As a child we used to go across to Ruby Island & play in the water & catch cockabullies. I never realised that there was anything else to do on the island. There is a wonderful walking track there now, a loop one which only take 20 minutes to walk.

It was a fun cache to do & we were all very pleased to get this "closest to Wanaka house" one finally off our list of to dos.

Scott has arrived Saturday

2009-07-11T17:17:00.004+12:00

Yay Scott has arrived. I have to say that I was a bit worried about the weather & whether he would be able to fly in to Queenstown. For the last few days there has been low cloud all around Wanaka & I was worried it would be the same near Frankton (where Queenstown airport is). He rang at 8:30 to say that there was a 50 minute delay due to low cloud at Frankton. We left Wanaka at 9:15 & pulled in to this spot, to find a geocache at 9:45.

It was good timing because Scott rang to tell me that they were boarding the plane. We found the geocache & signed the log, but I agree with the owner of the cache that our reading on the GPS wasn't 45S either. It was very cold, about 2C, as you can tell by the boys standing with their hands pulled up into their sleeves.

We arrived into Frankton at about 10:50 & as we were arriving I saw the plane coming in to land. We parked & picked up Scott & then went through to Queenstown to get some morning tea. We then drove back to Wanaka, stopping at Lowburn to find another geocache. This was a nice easy cache to find & we even took away a travel bug (Nemo) away with us. We arrived in Wanaka & had lunch. After lunch Scott took the boys for a walk to the dinosaur park & managed to brave the cold for a good couple of hours.

There are forecasts for snow over night & I say, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! because all is right with the world now that Scott is here.

Frigid Friday 10 July

2009-07-10T17:15:00.002+12:00

The sun never came out today so it's been very cold. We have spent a lot of the day in front of the fire although we did spend half an hour down at the dinosaur park.

Thursday 9 July - Dinosaur Park

2009-07-10T14:51:00.002+12:00

This park is on the daily list of places to go. Sometimes we bike there, sometimes we walk & if it's cloudy & cold we take the car. I have noticed that compared to the next holidays this park is reasonably quiet although it does seem to pick up around 3pm when people seem to have come off the ski slopes.

Here's a photo of why we call it the dinosaur park, it probably has a proper name but we know it as the dinosaur park.

The dinosaur is really a slide.

Wednesday 8 July

2009-07-10T11:37:00.002+12:00

One of the things that the boys loved to do was to climb the willow trees down by the side of the lake. Unfortunately a lot of the good, meaning easy to climb, trees have been cut down.

We did find this willow tree climbable & to James' excitement there was a hole in the trunk that had ICE in it at 4pm!

Tuesday 7 July - Brent's dinner

2009-07-09T14:01:00.002+12:00

I have decided that it's about time for Brent to start cooking a dinner each week. I know that I am leaving it late but in my defence term time evenings are just chaotic & it is better to get dinner made & the boys to bed as smoothly as possible.

Brent decided to make nachos, which happens to be his favourite dinner at the moment. He cut up the onions & did nearly all of it except opening the tins of chilli beans & tomatoes. Even I had trouble opening those tins!

It was a delicious meal thanks Brent! I wonder what you will cook for us next week.

Snowy Trip to Wanaka - Saturday 4 July

2009-07-08T11:42:00.003+12:00

We knew that we might have trouble coming down to Wanaka because a couple of days earlier there had been a heavy dump of snow in the high country. We purposely changed our normal course from the Geraldine/Fairlie/Tekapo route to a Timaru/Waimate/Kurow route. It probably was just as well that we took this route because as we were coming up the slight hill (356m above sea level according to the GPS) between the dams & Otematata this is the view we had. It really was a beautiful snowy scene with the glassy lake in the background. Not long after stopping to take this photo we got a stone chip in the windscreen on the passenger side not far from where it connects with the door column.

We got to Omarama at about 3pm & there was snow lying on the ground so we were really hoping we would get through the Lindis Pass. We saw a couple of huge trucks rumble past us so we knew the pass must have been open so we kept going all the time hoping we would get through before it was closed again. We got through fine although we were driving slower than usual. To our surprise there wasn't much snow lying on the ground.

We arrived in Wanaka at about 5:15pm.

Brent's Choice - Friday 3rd July

2009-07-07T14:06:00.002+12:00

I gave the boys the camera for our drive to mum's. This is one of the photos Brent took.

Lovely View

2009-07-07T12:08:00.002+12:00

I just love the view from the windows of the house down here in Wanaka. This was the view later in the afternoon once the low cloud had cleared. This is looking straight up at the Treble Cone skifield, one of the 2 skifields near Wanaka.

Sunday 5th July - Bye Dad!

2009-07-06T11:50:00.005+12:00

After spending time getting the insurance company on to our chipped windscreen, we went into town to get Scott's ski boots molded to his foot & to get the ski binding adjusted. That took quite some time so we quickly had a DaVinci's pizza before taking Scott to the Wanaka airport. It is a wonderfully small airport & really only small planes normally fly in to this airport except for when the airshow is on at Easter time.

We checked Scott in and then went to the cafe that has a wonderful view of the runway to have a coffee. Not that there was much in the way of air movements to watch. Towards 3pm a little plane circled around the airport & landed. It was the Air NZ plane that Scott was due to fly out on. We walked back to the terminal. Honestly terminal is a very grand term for this little prefabricated unit. It is a one man band kind of place. The same man that checked Scott in went to grab the luggage trolley & drive it to the plane & unload all the luggage & then he just drove it to the side of the building & told people to pick up their luggage. The same man then took the outgoing baggage out to the pilot who loaded it into his plane. Then the man came back & announced (not over a speaker system it wasn't needed in this small area) that it was time to board the plane. Scott then walked out to the plane & climbed up the steps to get into the plane. Once everyone was on the plane the "terminal man" then went out to the plane & put the airmuffs on & asked the pilot to turn on one engine. Once he was satisfied that it was working alright he asked the pilot to turn the other engine on. Then when that was going to his satisfaction he unhooked the electrical cable that connected the plane to whatever & then he removed the chocks & the plane was away.

We saw it take off & then it circled the airport once & it was gone in that low cloud.

Thursday 2 July - Trusses have arrived!

2009-07-03T12:20:00.004+12:00

The trusses arrived & got dropped off in the driveway. James would have loved to have seen the truck that had the mini crane attached to it, however he was at school. Brent wasn't really interested (he was home sick).

Tuesday 30 June

2009-07-01T09:53:00.002+12:00

James loves to come home from school & check out what's been happening around the house. At the moment we have these colourful tarps over part of the roof. I presume it's to keep any rain off any possible leaks that may be in the roofing iron. The roofing iron is still on but all the ceiling from the master bedroom, ensuite, Brent's room & the toy room is gone so you can now look straight up to see the burnt out joists.

I am writing this at 10am Wednesday morning & a truck load of framing timber has arrived but I don't think they are the joists, they just don't look thick enough to be them. Originally we were supposed to get the joists today but Fred told me last night (Tuesday night) that they are delayed but they should be here on Thursday. At the moment the roofing iron seems to be getting taken down so we really are hoping for fine weather on Thursday & Friday. Any dances to the weather gods or praying for fine weather in my neck of the woods would be appreciated.

Monday 29 June - Music Evening

2009-06-30T19:57:00.003+12:00

The music evening had a theme of water, water everywhere. Clyde were the first house up to sing & they sang Bridge over Troubled Water as their choice. Every house had to sing a Welsh song called Calon Lan. The words were very difficult to learn, as they were in Welsh, & I thought Clyde sang that song the best of any of the 4 houses. However Hamilton house did a wonderful rendition of Sloop John B & they won the house singing competition.