Boys Will Be Boys

I have 2 boys and I am going to let them be boys.

Every mother wants to wrap their child up in cotton wool until they are bigger to keep them safe, but you have to let them grow and experience.

If my 2 want to roll in the mud, then I will help to bath them afterwards.
If they want to try a jump on a small ramp with their bikes, then I will clean the cuts and grazes when they slide off.
And if they want to do something that ends up with them breaking something, I maybe won’t stand around and watch them partake of it, but I will escort them to the emergency room to get them patched up / stitched up or plastered up afterwards.

Boys will be boys and there is no stopping them, but who would want to?
Doing all this boy stuff is good for their coordination, balance, timing, trust, mental agility, bone and muscle growth and general overall knowing what their bodies can do.

Or at least that is what I am telling myself 16 hours after Alex (5 ½) has fallen 2 ½ m out of a tree at the caravan park!
Yes that is right, I watched him up a tree and then I saw him slip and fall like a rag doll to the grass below! Narrowly missing a parked boat nearby by ½ m!

How is he ............fine.
A little shaken and shocked, maybe a little bruised, a nice little fat lip inside where his teeth went but other than that fine.
Luckily, as mentioned, he fell like a rag doll and so landed on his whole body and not just one area so the whole impact was distributed.

We did the usual stuff......check for bone breakage, movement, bleeding, time and place knowledge, eye movement, speech etc
We kept the neurological checks going all evening and he is still ok.
An hour afterwards he was fine and running around, sort of like nothing had happened but still a little quiet. Occasionally (every 2 hours or so) he would lay down and say his tummy and head hurt, but palpation of his tummy came up negative and his time and place were accurate and his eye movement was fine.
He would then suddenly perk up again and go out and play, running around riding his bike etc

Although it hadn’t stopped us suspecting a mild concussion and therefore muggings here just spent the night sharing a bed with him so I could wake him every hour or so to check he woke up, that he didn’t have any pain or wasn’t feeling sick. As advised to us by the on call medical person on the phone, because as I mentioned, we are at the caravan and the local medical centre is for a very small township and therefore is not manned night and day, come 8pm if you want a doctor then you either dial 111 for the ambulance or you drive the 45 mins to Tauranga Hospital.

Also, even though we are both nurses ourselves, it is always reassuring to get someone else to say what they think and realise that you were doing the right things and were thinking the same things.

But of course he is fine.
So of course boys will be boys and I am not going to stop my 2 being boys.
Although just as long as they let me get through the next 2 weeks of our holiday with no more heart stopping moments then I will be ready for the next time they need me!

No Stress

It is Christmas Eve and I really have no stress.
I still have a huge amount of things to do but nothing that is worth stressing out about.

I am still at work, and probably will be until about 4pm. Sadly patient's don't want to be in Hospital anymore than we want to be working here, so we are doing our best to get people sorted with their procedure so they can go home tomorrow.

The boys are now at home with Steve, and they are the ones doing all the last minute shopping, not that we need much. Although Steve has just announced that he can' t find his bank card, so maybe at 2pm on Christmas Eve he is going to fight his way into the bank to get it sorted. have checked the account and there is no suspicious activity showing, so we think he has left it at a shop when paying for something!

The presents are all wrapped and ready to go, although we are considering putting up the climbing frame tonight so the boys can have that part tomorrow and the swing part they can know about but will go up after the Christmas holiday rush. Sure they will survive.

Although last night we realised that maybe we had a few too many presents for them, so some are not being shown the light of day and will stay hidden under the stairs and used for birthday presents through the year. I love buying my boys presents but there is definitely only so much that they need in one go.

So as the day is closing in and everyone is coming together, I hope you are all ready and have a pleasant few days with your family and loved ones.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I will catch you on the other side of 2011

Numbers

18 post titles written on piece of paper reminding me of all the posts I want to write

8 more Christmas presents I need to buy before Saturday

3 dishes I need to cook on Christmas Eve to take with me for lunch on Christmas Day

30+ Christmas Cards I need to write and dream about getting in the mail!

2 children I have in tow with me to stop me from achieving all of the above today.

1 child who is not feeling too well and keeps having a temperature, even though the house is very hot and the humid wet outside is even hotter

90% humidity currently reaching in Hamilton

23 temperature currently recorded

22 is the age a dear friend has turned today...Happy Birthday Jessica

49 is the age my husband turns on Boxing Day, so must remember to buy him a Birthday present in amongst all those Christmas presents!

Oh yea....

3 sleeps till Christmas!

Shopping, Presents and Carols

Today, like many others, we ventured down town to do some last minute shopping on the last Saturday before Christmas. Well, the boys wanted to get each other a present.
The place was not too over run and we managed to get done what we wanted with no hassle at all.

As it was food time, we stopped for a little snack in the shopping centre.
As we made our way to the table I noticed an older couple stood off to the side with black clip folders under their arms. My immediate thought was "what are they going to talk about when they stop people, let's just keep moving!"
However then I noticed another couple stood outside of another shop, and a few more over by the food court.
I, however, then got distracted from these people, by a solo carol singer starting up at the otherside of the foodcourt by the Christmas tree. She sounded really good

Suddenly she started to sound even better, because this stereo sound of carolers suddenly was all around us. It actually seemed like suddenly half the people in the shopping centre had joined in with her....but they hadn't!

Yes, that is right....all those people stood around with black clip folders were actually part of the choir and they had all started singing and were now making their way, from every direction possible, towards the tree in the far corner. The sound and the effect was awesome.
People singing, but looking like they were just casual shoppers, just made the whole place light up. Because you could hear the singers but not see them all very clearly, then everyone stopped what they were doing and were looking around for where the noise was coming from, so suddenly the whole shopping centre went still and quiet as the members of the chior slowly, whilst singing, made their way to the correct place.

The choir was a very good one and they sang all the good songs, including my favorite one "Oh Come All Yee Faithful" they even managed the descant (a group of the choir singing the same words but in a different way that compliments the original verse) to the last verse, which I know and love.

Sitting in the middle of it all was awesome and had a wonderful Christmas feeling, really putting you into the Christmas spirit.

This spirit must have got the right place, because when we went into K-mart, I noticed their Wishing Tree Appeal. This is where they have a tree up in the store and you can leave presents for the Salvation Army to give to less fortunate people at Christmas time. So I took 4 tags and made sure we bought and left 4 presents before we went home.

Busy Busy

Like everyone else around me, life is busy busy at present.
What with it coming to the end of the school year here, summer fast approaching round the corner and one other thing that I can't quite remember........oh yea, Christmas and the fat fella in a suit!

Last Wednesday on my day off I had a list of chores as long as my arm. I managed to take everyone to work and school at 8am and then managed to never return home until I picked everyone up and we all got home at 5pm.
It was mega madness the whole day. Sad thing about it all is I can count on my fingers the amount of hours I have left in the next 2 weeks to get everything done that I want to achieve.

We are having a secret santa gift swap at work and muggins here decided (I must have been mad at the time) that I was going to.......wait for it.........MAKE my present for my secret santa person!! I know it will only take me a few hours to do it, but I have to find the few hours of peace to be able to do it!

We have Christmas/End of Year parties springing up all over the place. This weekend I have been to my cousin's wedding (gorgeous by the way and a fabulous family catch up, pictures in another post) and today the boys and Steve had their end of year Judo family fun day, so lots of playing silly games and having a great time.
On Wednesday I have a leaving do for one of the Doctors and on Friday we have our works Christmas party.
So all go as usual.

However, there are some saving graces. One of the shops I had to use on Wednesday last week was good enough to keep all my purchases and have them gift wrapped whilst I was a way at an appointment and not make me stand around and wait for them, made the day run smoother.
Another saving grace was the fact I was unable, in my well planned rushed state, to get to a library to drop the books off. So all I did was log on to their website at the end of the day and renew all the books. Now, even though we are finished with the books, I can return them at a better pace and in my own time knowing we are not going to incur late fees!

So it is all go here, as I am sure it is in your house too.
Keep your chin up and try not to panic, it really is not worth it. If you don't manage to get the turkey for Christmas day, well then make do with the little frozen chicken in the freezer. At the end of the day you will still have a nice meal with family and that is all that matters.

Me, well I still have some shopping to do, luckily I am seeing them all on Christmas day so no worries about having to post them anywhere. Still not sure what I am buying, but they are old enough to know that gift vouchers work well. Although I did manage to get a present sorted for my Dad and even managed to give it to him before he leaves on Tuesday to go back to China. How organised was that?

Judo

As you may remember, the boys have been doing Judo since April and they love it.
At the end of June we let them attend a little fun day that was held at our Judo Club and they had a ball competing at it, Ben even walked away with a medal.

Since then they have wanted to compete in many of the little fun days that have been held around the region by local clubs. They have both again thoroughly enjoyed competing in them. Ben has walked away with a medal of some description from just about every day, whereas sadly Alex has not quite got there yet.

They have both been asking recently, as well, when they will get a yellow belt.
We have been answering that one by telling them that their Sensei is always watching them and when he feels they are ready for it they will be graded and achieve it, hopefully.

This weekend, our club decided to hold a little fun day for just our club, no other clubs were invited, so everyone knew everyone and it was a well supported event.
They decided not to place the children in weight groups this time but have them go in height and build groups.
This actually made for a much fairer mix of competitors.

Alex in his little group

Alex had 2 other people to fight against, 1 little girl who I knew he would beat and 1 boy who he would have to work against. He easily beat the little girl and with a bit of work also beat the boy too. That meant he had secured his first medal and a gold at that too. We were so proud. He was pretty chuffed too.

Ben however had a taste of his own medicine and had a large group to fight against and some of them were not a walk over, he really had to prove himself and work hard at technique during these fights, oh and he also had to manage to not laugh and giggle when being held on the floor! Just goes to show that he loves what he is doing and is very relaxed with it.



Ben's little group



He managed to win 2 of his fights and lost 2 or 3 more, so all over he had managed to secure a Bronze medal. Which is all he needed really, because I think this time he took away more understanding about technique than actual winning etc.

Getting Gold

Ben's larger group

After all the medals had been awarded the Sensei started calling little groups up and informing them they had achieved enough to have a small yellow strip placed on their white belt, thus meaning they were either 1 or 2 steps closer to a yellow belt, however he never called either Ben or Alex up for either of these first 2 groups. My emotions hit me a little and I suddenly got very worried for them, but within about 2 secs my mind caught up and I realsied that Ben and Alex would not be getting little strips on their white belts towards their yellow belts because they were no longer going to be wearing white belts!

Yes, my 2 darling little fighters had just succeeded in securing themselves 'Yellow Belts'

Way to go boys, we are so very proud of you and all the hard work you have put into Judo over the last 7 months to achieve this awesome award.

Several other people in the club got promoted on their belt colours and it was a wonderful successful day for lots of people at the end of it.

Not Perfect

I will be the first to admit that my house is not perfect.
I will also be the first to admit that I do struggle with keeping a house and working 4 days a week!

I have the perfect sign in my house that describes it perfectly....

On a day to day basis things only get done on a very small scale.
Things do get left around, the place is not spotless 24/7.
However, if the place does get the once over, then everything gets done with the exception of 3 areas...

1. Main kitchen surface
2. Study
3. Our bedroom

Surprisingly it is #3 that bugs me the most.
Yes #1 bugs me, especially as this is the only one on full view of all visitors, plus the area should be a breakfast bar and we have, as yet, never used it as that!

However, since having those 2 gorgeous offsprings children, our bedroom never gets touched.
I go in at night, go to bed, usually already counting the amount of time I can sleep until the alarm goes off for the next day. In the morning I get up, get dressed and leave the room and never return until bedtime when the whole cycle starts again.
When I have laundry to put away, then I admit that I remember to take it up as I am going to bed or earlier in the evening, if I remember, but I find I usually rush it upstairs whilst doing something else and so therefore just leave it on the bed.

It comes down to, plain and simple, out of sight out of mind!

When Alex was 6 weeks old, we had to attend a funeral. I noticed several weeks later, in the middle of the night whilst feeding him, that the shoes I had worn were still on the floor by the unit and not in the wardrobe.
I had managed to walk past them for weeks, but I had never picked them up and placed them the 4m into the wardrobe.
It again simply came down to the fact that when I went in the room at night, I got ready and fell into bed and when I got up each morning I got dressed and left to deal with the children.

Now that I have set myself those 100 challenges, I am also going to try my hardest to put my laundry away when I take it up.
What is odd, is that the boys laundry gets put straight into their draws when it goes in their room. I have always put it there and now we are encouraging them to do the same, regardless of the fact that I don't do the same!

So on top of my 100 challenges over the next year, I am adding this one as a challenge to achieve continuously always.

A Poem for Women

With time, women gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies.
So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy.

Beginning today, when I look at my backside in the mirror I will think,
"Good grief, look how smart I am!"

Happy Mid week to you

Sunflowers

As you may have remembered from here, we are having a sunflower growing competition in our family.

Man are they growing!!

Here is a picture of how they are looking at present.....

man are they getting tall?

I am sure they keep growing just in the time we are away during the day for work and school cause they always seem taller when we get home.

Steve and Ben seem to be steaming away with the tallest at present

sure Steve's are getting taller because of the down pipe?

Ben's on the R of pole, mine on L, pretty close in size

Alex is a little miffed that his are not racing behind, but I keep assuring him that that means his are saving their energy for making the biggest flower head and that that prize is the best one to win at the end of the day (get to choose where to have dinner)

A Small Problem

Before we start this post, I must tell you that the only way I got these pictures on here was by placing them on a USB stick and then using the laptop rather than my PC! How is that for go figure? and simple? Although still haven't figures out as to why my PC will not load pictures on days with an 'A' in them??

Many weeks ago we had a small problem with our cat...she wanted to constantly sit outside the door that lead into our roof space!

We could hear something and Steve guessed that we maybe had a bird making their way into the roof. This was not something that we had ever actually confirmed, but the cat was still happy to sit outside the door when ever she had the chance.

However not long ago we started to hear a few little chirps and guessed that yes in deed we had a bird nest in the roof and the eggs had obviously hatched!

This has driven the cat even madder than she already is!

Steve mentioned it at dinner the other evening, how to deal with the babies in the roof?

1. Leave well alone and let the bird finish with the nest and then move it and block up the holes?
2. Go in and move the nest straight away, block up the hole and live with the consequences?

One of the biggest things was whether we would be able to find the nest? Would we have to empty out half the stuff in the roof to gain access to the nest? Would we be able to find it easily?

Today Steve went into the roof to find out what was there?

He came downstairs and told me he had something to show me, that not to worry we would have no worries finding the nest?

On going into the roof space and putting my head round the little door leading in, this is what we found....

This nest is just under 1m tall

This one bird had created this nest for her babies, or baby as there was only 1 in there.

We did however find an egg on the floor but on further inspection have decided that we think it got knocked out long ago.

Alex took the egg to school the other day for show and tell.

Now we are well aware of how she got into the roof. This next picture shows you the little gap we have just under the eaves by the beams of the roof.

small gap by beam of roof

What gets me though is that when you look at the roof line at the back of the house....someone has actually blocked the same areas there!

nice blocked gap by beam of roof

So my question would then be....well why not do all of them to prevent it happening at all?

Tonight Steve has been in the roof and sadly the nest is empty. We can not find any sign of the baby bird but feel that it looked too young to be ready to fly away so soon. Maybe we disturbed something by opening the door into the area etc?

So now we have a clean up to do. Feel we are going to need a black bag to get all that nest out of the roof and then sometime during the summer we will have to organise little planks of wood to be nailed over the holes, just like the back of the roof has, so the birds are unable to get into there again next year.

Trouble Again

Once again I have several posts to show you but once again they will only work with pictures.
BUT once again I am unable to load pictures onto the post.

Have I mentioned before at all that I hate this new picture loading device that blogger have changed to?
I just don't seem to get the pictures to load.
Today I can get them to load to the sub screen but not actually load onto the post!

What is the point?

Disaster

Not sure if any of my friends overseas are aware that sadly over a week ago New Zealand was hit with a terrible mining disaster!
29 guys sadly lost their lives when there was an explosion in the coal mine they had not long started their shift in.
At the time it was extremely dangerous to go in and attempt to rescue them and sadly as the days wore on, it became apparent that it was even worse than they originally thought.
Unfortunately 5 days after the first explosion there was a 2nd explosion.
It was then deemed that New Zealand had a recovery on their hands not a rescue.

Yesterday there was yet another explosion.

They are unsure as to when the recovery attempt will start, it may sadly be many weeks before they are able to deem the mine safe enough for rescue teams to go in the mine.

At present, as is company rules, all 29 miner's tags are still hanging on the security board at the entrance of the mine, and as is rightly so, I feel these tags will stay there until the miners are safely brought to the surface.
It goes to show that the miners are still underground and that is what those tags mean during working times.

I hope that when the miners are safely recovered, someone will kindly take the tags down to show they are no longer underground.

I remember many years ago, when 2 Australian miners got trapped underground. The first thing they both did on successfully returning to the surface, was to remove their tags from the board to show their shift had ended and that they were no longer underground.
It was a poiniant moment watching them remove the tags, as it symbolised so much.

My heart goes out to all the families who have been affected by this sad disaster. I fear they will not have closure very quickly and I hope they manage to get through the many weeks ahead until closure comes to them.

Start of The Challenges

Well a week has almost passed and I have made a start on my challenges.

I of course completed Challenge 1 first, as per the instructions that I had set, and so I ahve brought my notebook to use for the time. In fact I brought 2 notebooks, 1 to be used as a jotting place for things to do with each challenge, notes to self, points to remember etc.
The 2nd one is the official book that will get nicely written and have pictures pasted into to use as my journal of my challenge.

I have also made a start on several other challenges, as some of them will take time to complete.
Please refer here for the complete list of challenges.

Challenge 43 - we have a vegetable garden planted and when there is something to use I will complete this challenge early next year

Challenge 45 - I have made a start on my new collection and have decided that I will start collecting snowmen. It is the right time of year to commence this challenge as of course all the Christmas decorations are now readily available in the stores. I will post a picture when I have the 1st item of my collection.

Challenge 63 - I have started to read through some of the cook books in the cupboard to see which would be enjoyable to use. I am even considering using the cook book Alex got for his birthday this year and maybe extending the challenge a little to add that him and I will attempt all the recipes?

Challenge 71 - am constantly thinking about what I could use to develop the recipe, although I have a dip (Chick Peas with Indian Spices) that I buy from a store that I love and am maybe going to see if I can reproduce it at home.

Challenge 73 - have been thinking back over my wonderful adventerous 40 years and jotting down places I have enjoyed visiting and thinking about if I would like to take the boys there one day.

So there is my start for now, not bad going for the first week.

True Friends

A true friend doesn't care when you're broke, being a bitch, what you weigh,
if your house is a mess, what you drive, about your past, or if your family is filled with crazy people.
Your conversations pick up where they left off, even if they have been months apart.
They love ......you.........for who you are.

My Challenges

As promised my 'Challenge' page is now up and running.

Yes today is my 40th Birthday and so my 100 challenges have begun

Click over here to find out all about what I have set myself to achieve or just click on the 'challenge' page at the top of my blog.

Should make for an interesting first year of being in my 40's

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to meeee,

Happy Birthday to me......

Little White Boy

Ben, at the beginning of the year, came home from school and annouced that he was joining Kapa Haka.
Kapa Haka is a Traditional Maori Dance Group, usually performed by Maori.

He is loving it and is well into it, apart from one little problem.............

Spot the little white boy!

Emotions

Today my emotions ran a muck!
And it wasn't my family that caused it either!
It was a patient at work that hit me the most and proved after all that nurses are human and do get affected by what is going on around them.

I don't know what it was about this case but something just hit me and wouldn't let go and that sent my emotions into over drive big time.

I don't often get affected by patient's to the extent that it stays with me but today was one of those ones that does.

Very lucky that Steve works in the hospital as well so I was able to go find him and get the big hug I desperately needed at the time

Life Lessons and Celebrating

This is my 1000 post, yea to me for getting this far. It has taken me 5 years to get here but the first 2 years I really didn't blog much at all, 6 or 7 post a year, so maybe it will only take me 3 years to get to 2000?

This was sent to me by email, am sure I have seen it before, but everytime I read it at least 1 or 2 of the points ring home some truth to me and make me realise that sometimes I really am sweating the bad stuff and ignoring the good.

GOOD ADVICE Written by a 90 year old

This is something we should all read at least once a week!!!!!
Make sure you read to the end!!!!!!

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland ,
Ohio .

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me...
It is the most requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come...

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Hope this makes you think about soemthing in your life and makes you realise that it is not all bad!

Zoo

When we lived in Auckland, we use to visit the zoo all the time.
They had wonderful annual passes available.
At the time we were able to get 2 adult passes because the kids got in free.
Once they turned 5 then we would have got a kids pass and then become the accompanying adult that got in free.
All in all it always worked out a very decent thing to buy for the year and it got well used.

When we moved to Hamilton we checked out the zoo here! What a disappointment, they didn't do annual passes, just Friends of the Zoo, which you had to pay to be and this only gave you half price when ever you visited, so you had to have the money to be able to go.
Consequently we have not used the zoo at all whilst living here.

However I have just read on Facebook (and checked out on their website) that they have just introduced their  'New' annual pass to the zoo.
They now have on sale annual passes at a very reasonable price that allows you to go as often as you want for the whole year. Yea, we will definitely be looking at getting one of those.

When you have nothing else to do, it is always great to take the kids to the zoo. For the price of the Family Pass we would have to visit 3 times in the year to get our monies worth but that would be easy to do.
The amount of times we use to load the pushchair with drink bottles and a packed lunch and spend an afternoon at the zoo, was great.

Think we might just be visiting Hamilton Zoo much more next year

Deadly Day on Waikato Roads

That is the title on one of the Google homepage news links.
The first paragraph went like this:

"Three people were killed and six injured in three separate crashes within 7 hours on Waikato roads."

Having heard of 2 of the accidents on the news I thought I would have a quick read to see about the 3rd.

1. Car v truck on a bend
2. Police car v car trying to escape them
3. Car v tanker

The only thing that suddenly stood out for me was this:

1. Driver of the car was 15yrs old
2. Driver of the car that crashed in to Police was ....15yrs old
3. Driver of the car was 17yrs old

Anyone else see a common theme in this story.......yea me too, the drivers were all young. The 15yr old female they say was driving too fast and didn't handle the car or road correctly. She also had a car full of other teenager passengers
The 15yr old male that ran into police was in a car packed with other youths and they were trying to escape the Police.
The 3rd driver I don't know anything about, just that he was young too.

Sadly it wasn't a good day on the roads for young drivers yesterday in the Waikato area

The 40th Challenge Preperation

The idea for the '40th Challenge' I got from someone else, isn't that where all good ideas come from?

I was reading a blog one time and this lady was talking about how she set herself somethings to achieve in the first year of being 40.
Hers were along the lines of:

1. Take a hot air balloon ride
2. Get a facial
3. Try yoga

Not quite the sort of thing I wanted to do as most of her stuff cost a lot of money, I wanted something that would maybe make me, ok on a very small scale, a better person. Maybe make me more aware of others etc, something that I didn't mind spending some money on but was not going to cost me a fortune.

Anyway, I was reading another blog I follow and she mentioned a friend who had sent her something as part of a challenge she was trying to complete.
So being the nosey person I am, I skipped on over to her blog and checked it all out.
I wasn't 100% sure to begin with, but after some thinking I decided I could adapt a little.

I got in touch with the person doing the challenge to enquire as to where she got the idea from?
She said that a friend and herself had sort of copied something they had seen and like me adapted it slightly and tweaked it some more and hey presto ended up with what they had.

So for the last couple of days I have been doing just that. I have been reading through and adapting, without making it too easy, so that I have something that has some easy parts and some rather hard thinking parts.

I have enjoyed tweaking it so much that I am now very eager to start, although I am not going to start until my birthday (11 days by the way) but I have already got plans in my head for some of the parts so hopefully will start with a big bang and hope I see it through.

I will, when I put the challenge up on the blog, talk about where I got it from and then you can skip on over, when you are free and see how she has got on throughout 2010 which has been her timeframe for the challenge.

Maybe, you might be inspired to set yourself one at sometime.

Catch you soon

Upcoming Birthday

I have a rather significant birthday coming up in a few weeks time. Sadly not as young as 30 but not as old as 50, so you work it out!

Anyway, apart from wanting to totally change my career and try and spend more time doing crafts etc I wanted something to try and do as a little challenge as I turn this momentous age??

But what, is the big question?

Well on someones blog the other day I came across the very thing. Something that will take me at least a year to complete, something that has no set timeframes and can be achieved in any order, no set rules, just something to work towards.

I will let you in on the challenge in a few weeks time (2 1/2 weeks actually) because hopefully it will be something I can blog about as I achieve it.

Sunflower Competition

We have had the sunflower seeds planted for about 3 weeks now and we have had some results already.


Green shoots at the back are my seeds through, lots of them!

My seeds won the first step of the competition, which was to have the first shoot through, although Steve says that mine came through first because I didn't plant them very deep!
He thinks his will be the tallest because he says he planted them deeper and so they will be stronger?
We will see.

Garden Wedding

Our back garden seems to have been turned into a something out of a wedding!

The neighbours have this awesome tree in their garden and it is full of blossom.

And with the wind we have swirling around today, there is confetti petals floating all over the place.

In the vegetable patch

All in the lawn

All we need know is the bride and groom!