School Holidays.

It is that time of year again when the schools are off for 2 weeks and we have to entertain our own children!

We have taken the boys down to the snow. Living here in New Zealand then snow is not an everyday thing in the winter so an adventure to the mountain (4hours away) is called for when ever snow play is required.
This is the first time the boys have seen the snow. So was a vert special trip.

I have managed to get loads of pictures and when I finally get home I will load them all onto the computer.

From there we have had a very wet drive to Grandma's house on our way to the caravan.
She was conveniently located at the right spot on our way up to stop for dinner.
So we called ahead a couple of weeks ago and booked a table for dinner!
As I write this it is heating on the stove and smells lovely.

So I am not missing in action, just having time away with the boys.
Will catch you all next week when we are back in the normal life again.

Work

Steve got offered a new job today :)

So no more worries about Redeployments and Redundancies.

Yea for him

Anniversary

Today is our 1st Wedding Anniversary.

Last year I never managed to get round to writing about our special day and I did plan on having it written for today, but like most things in life, it never quite happened.

Given other situations that are slightly more important at present, sitting and writing about last year doesn't make it high on the list.

So now I have another whole year to get myself organised and get the story written.

We celebrated last weekend when we had no kids around by going out to brunch on the Sunday and in 3 weeks time a group of us are going to see 'Mamma Mia' in Auckland.

Steve and I have seen it once before in 2004 so know that it is awesome. We are actually making a whole weekend of it because Grandma is having the boys, so that is also our planned anniversary treat.

Today we just have a couple of friends coming over for lunch. Should be fun.

School

At school on Friday, Ben had a day called 'Charufti Day'

Never heard of it? No neither had I.

Turns out it was part of their Oral Language Week and the word is made up of the words Character and Mufti.

All the Junior pupils had to choose a favorite book and then give a small presentation about it. They could also dress up as a character from the book.

Now this proved a little bit of a challenge for Ben, as he didn't really have a favorite book, likes all of them and he also had no idea as to what a character was.

So after a little drama, we decided on a Firefighter Story book he had and he decided that he would dress as a Firefighter.

In the end the presentation went alright. He got all coy and shy when having to start, but when he did speak it was clear and understandable.

His teacher dressed as 'Bad Jelly Witch' and all his friends dressed up too. It was a colourful day to see.

Alex decided that he had to join in the small parade they gave and somehow managed to sneak into the Junior School Picture taken at the end!

Showering

How To Shower Like a Woman

Take off clothes and place them sectioned in laundry basket according to lights and darks.
Walk to bathroom wearing long dressing gown.
If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
Look at your womanly physique in the mirror - make mental note to do more sit-ups/leg-lifts, etc.
Get in the shower.
Use face cloth, arm cloth, leg cloth, long loofah,wide loofah and pumice stone.
Wash your hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins.
Wash your hair again to make sure it's clean.
Condition your hair with grapefruit mint conditioner enhanced.
Wash your face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes until red.
Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffacake body wash.
Rinse conditioner off hair.
Shave armpits and legs.
Turn off shower.
Squeegee off all wet surfaces in shower.
Spray mould spots with Tile cleaner.
Get out of shower.
Dry with towel the size of a small country.
Wrap hair in super absorbent towel.
Return to bedroom wearing long dressing gown and towel on head.
If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.

How To Shower Like a Man

Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave them in a pile.
Walk naked to the bathroom.
If you see wife along the way, shake willy at her making the 'woo-woo' sound.
Look at your manly physique in the mirror.
Admire the size of your willy and scratch your bum.
Get in the shower.
Wash your face.
Wash your armpits.
Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse them off.
Fart and laugh at how loud it sounds in the shower.
Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.
Wash your bum, leaving those coarse bum hairs stuck on the soap.
Wash your hair.
Make a Shampoo Mohawk..
Wee.
Rinse off and get out of shower.
Partially dry off.
Fail to notice water on floor because curtain was hanging out of bath the whole time.
Admire willy size in mirror again.
Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, light and fan on..
Return to bedroom with towel around waist.
If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake willy at her and make the 'woo-woo' sound again!
Throw wet towel on bed.

I KNOW YOU'RE LAUGHING CAUSE MOST OF IT'S TRUE!!!!!!

Work

This time it is not my job I am talking about but sadly my husbands.

We moved to Hamilton just under 2 years ago. Steve had been offered a job that he had been interested in for many months and we were very happy when he got offered the job and quite happily accepted.

Unfortunately what I didn't realise is that the job description etc changed a few times over the next couple of months and he began to realise that this maybe wasn't the best move he could have made career wise.
However things moved a long at work and he moved to a different area again, but still doing the same job. When the project finished he got kept in the Project Office and sadly this is where all the hassle has come from.

To cut a long story short, today he started redeployment/redundancy meetings with his managers and the HR department.
His position as he knows it has been dissolved.
They are saying it is due to the economically times of today, but we all know it is part profession and more parts personal.

He hasn't enjoyed the position and so on that aspect this is a good thing because maybe he will find a position that he will want to work at and not just have to work at because there is nothing else to do!
But on the other hand, it is a real kick in the stomach to realise that moving to Hamilton was not the best move ever for his career and that somewhere along the way he has managed to piss someone off and now sadly has more or less been told he is not wanted.

I know in a years time we will look back on this and hopefully be grateful because he is in a better place and happier and be glad it happened, but unfortunately at this present moment we are not.

It hurts, not just for Steve but for me too, watching him have to go through all this. Sitting in a meeting today that they requested I attend and listening to them talk about my husband like that, even though they kept it all professional we all know more or less what they were saying and it was hard.
I have had a very emotional day.

But on the other hand, I am currently on week 4 of a new job and they have been fabulous. They let me leave work today after 4 hours to attend this meeting and when I returned to work they promptly sent me home as they realised I was not really any use to them, but it wasn't done negatively they were all there to support me and help where necessary. They were awesome and I was really grateful to them for their support and advice.

Crock Pot

I love crock pots / slow cookers. They can make life so easy and the wonder of walking into a house at the end of a hard day and smell dinner cooking away in the corner is awesome.

My mum came to stay once and as she left she put what food I had left out for dinner in the crock pot, unbeknown to me.
The smell and awesome feeling I got when I walked in the door later that evening with 2 kids under 4 after a hard day at work was amazing. In fact I was so grateful, I had tears in my eyes as I realised what she had done for us. I was touched by something so simple yet so wonderful a thing to do.
The recipe she used was a made up one, what ever she happen to find in my pantry at the time, but it was awesome, in fact I got her to tell me what she put in there and I have since made it loads of times. She called it Chicken Hotpot and I have shared it with several friends who love it too. I will try and remember to put it up here soon so you can all try it, very simple and easy.

I have an awesome large crock pot. Must be about 5 or 6 litres in size. I can nicely cook a large whole chicken in there with no problem.

If you want to make chilli for 20 then this is the beast to have, but that is the problem, there are only 4 of us!

When you make a casserole, I find that it cooks very very quickly because there is hardly anything in the bottom of the pot. It only fills about an inch or 2 at the bottom. Handy if you forget to put it on and need something done in half the time, but not so good when you want to put something on for 8 hours on low and hope that it is nicely cooked when you return, not fried to a crisp and dried out!

So with the remainders of some Christmas vouchers and a very nice sale, I purchased this for us last week.

A nice 3 litre crock pot, that will hold a casserole for 4 very nicely, will cook it in the appropriate time and will not dry everything out because of over cooking.

I put a nice chicken dish in there yesterday and it cooked beautifully. The chicken was perfect and moist where it had slowly cooked for 8 hours rather than speed cooked in 3!

I love my crock pots.

Whoops

Ben got up this morning and decided that he did not want to go to school.

I really wasn't too bothered as he never asks to take a day off school. I know he is tired and we are just about at the end of another term (school holidays start in 2 weeks time)

So I agreed to him staying home, I am here all day with Alex anyway, so makes no difference whether I have 1 or 2 kids.

Ok, so he has been a little pain the whole day. He has bugged me constantly, reminded me of everything possible when we have gone anywhere and generally been a pain. Makes me realise why I send him to school now!

Unfortunately, Alex had a Doctor's appointment today, nothing serious, but 2 minutes before we left the house, I mean I was literally just collecting my bag, when there was this almighty scream. I ran into the garden to discover Ben sat on the floor in the garden holding his head, screaming and telling me he had fallen when jumping off the baby trampoline we have.

I quickly reasured him, gave him a cold cloth for his face, had a quick check and then whipped them out the door to Alex's appointment, knowing I could get a better look at his face once we got to the Doctor's surgery, because then at least we wouldn't be late for the appointment!

How bad a mother does that make me....more worried about missing the appointment than checking my son was ok after a tumble?

Anyway, he is fine. Nicely grazed all up the side of his face, lip, nose, cheak and eye. He is definitely going to go to school tomorrow with a slightly black eye.

The red up his cheak is graze not where he was flushed! He has a few little cuts as well. Actually made a really good mess of himself!

Told him he should have gone to school today!

Free Weekend

Unfortunately nothing free to give away, more like managing to get a free weekend from our children.
On Thursday Steve annouced a few things informed me about a few things at work that I needed to know about. This lead to a very quick call to Grandma who kindly had the boys for 24 hours so we could have some peaceful time together to talk things thru with no distruptions.

We did all the talking that we needed to do and now have a clearer head about how our week a head may go.
We also had some quality time together that was much over due. As it is our 1st Wedding Anniversary next weekend we also managed to slip in a brunch today, which I am classing as part of our celebration.

I know we won't be able to get time alone next weekend, that is just life with kids, but we are going to Auckland to see a show in 4 weeks time and Grandma is once again helping out by coming here to stay whilst we have 2 nights in Auckland. So I decided to grab the opportunity whilst we had it and had a nice brunch out with my husband at the restaurant that I got taken to for breakfast on our wedding day (by the Best Man and his wife)
It was an enjoyable time and I have decided that if possible I would like to ensure we have a meal there each year, just the 2 of us, at the time of our anniversary, or like today, at a time close to it.

So now I have the joy of finding a 1st Anniversary present for my husband. Have decided to go traditional and find something of paper.
I know a book is what springs to mind but would love to be more creative than that but seem to have hit a brick wall, so may just end up as a book anyway!

Have a great week.

Car

This is the car we have been driving for the last 10 days.

It belongs to my Uncle and Aunty.

It is a lovely Ford Escape that nicely seats 4 people.

That is the reason why we have it. Our car is a Mazda MPV and nicely seats 6.

They are currently in Tonga on a family holiday and needed to get 6 people to Auckland to the airport, so borrowed our car so they only had to pay 1 lot of petrol and 1 parking fee at the airport.

The Escape has been different, slightly higher than ours, also smaller than ours.

It would be a lovely car to have, say in 4 or 5 years time when the boys are bigger and we don't have to take so much stuff with us when we travel. It would also be a nice car if we didn't have 2 carseats to accommodate as well.

Can't really complain, it has not been a difficult 10 days, and our car is back tonight.

Grocery Challenge Update

This last Saturday, with my trusty list in hand, I made my way to the supermarket.
I came away having spent a good $30 less than I usually spend per week.
We have still had the same dinners each evening that we would have had had I spent the full amount.
I watched how many of things I brought, did we really need 6 tins of something when in fact we would only be using 4 during the week. That sort of thing is how I got round the shop.

I have been to the shop once this week for fresh bread and milk.
Steve has been once as well for bread, milk and fruit and I would say that we have been good and probably saved about $15 during the week in total from the mid week excursions.

So in total, we have managed to save about $45 this week and I was aiming for $50.
So I am impressed with our first week effort.

Someone Cares....

Yesterday in the paper, there was a little thank you on the back page from a man who thought a company had gone above and beyond themselves. In fact he really thought this type of caring had all but disappeared so was very grateful that it hadn't.
This is what he said....

"My daughter catches the same bus home from boarding school in Hamilton every Friday afternoon. Last Friday, however, she caught a later one. But the driver of her regular Newmans bus noticed her missing and got Intercity in Auckland to ring us to make sure she was okay. I was almost in tears, so grateful that they cared. I thought that sort of service had long gone from the New Zealand business scene. I am so thrilled that I was wrong."

But then you could go to the other extreme and realise that sadly no one cares!
Another bit on the same page showed you a lady who had put this annoucement in the paper...!

"THEFT: A woman in the 1900 block of 129th Lane Northeast, reported Oct 15 that someone must have stolen her mail, because she did not receive brithday cards from some of her friends!"

You just can't win them all!

Birthday

I always seem to be posting about someone's birthday, but hey I love helping people celebrate their day so I am not bothered.

So here is another.....

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Mark,

Happy Birthday to you.....

Happy 50th Birthday to my Uncle Mark. Hope you have an awesome day and are enjoying your current holiday in Tonga.

Pauline, me, Steve & Mark

Chilli

You take 1kg of beef mince, add 4 tins of chilli beans, some garlic (4 tsp) some beef stock (4 cups), onions (2 chopped), tomato sauce (1/2 cup) and cumin (2 tsp).


Cook it all together.

Put it into containers that can go in the freezer

and hey presto you have dinner for 5 different nights when you need something quick and easy when you have to work late or don't have an hour to prepare dinner with!

I also went on to make 5 spahetti Bolognese to go in the freezer as well.

Sunshine Fun

Today it has felt like spring.

The sun is shining and it is glorious.

We met up with some friends and went to the Hamilton Gardens for the tulip festival. Perfect place to go when you want to burn off energy from 5 children, 11yr old, 6 yr old and 3 4yr olds.

All around the garden was tulips in bloom. There was also a few stalls at the pavilion selling Dutch items but we spent most of our time wandering round our usual favorite spots in the Gardens taking heaps of pictures. There are even some of me! I had to keep asking the family to take pictures because like all bloggers we never actually end up in the pictures because we are always taking the pictures!

Our good friends Lisa, Cameron, Hollie and Nathan were with us and we had an awesome time.