Wednesday, April 28, 2010

New Blog

I have updated an old blog that I had.
I actually had 3 blogs, the main one being this one 'Life Today' where I ramble on about what we as a family are doing and how life is today.
I then had blog #2 which I kept when we were selling our house in Auckland and moving to Hamilton. I have stopped updating this now, well I stopped 2 years ago.
Then blog #3 was somewhere for me to vent when things got tough, which going by the amount of posts on it, was not often, but it gave me somewhere to yell when Steve got lax with his diabetes and this caused hassle or when I just got annoyed.

Anyway, I have decided to recreate blog #3 and turn it into a blog where I can record my journey to Teaching.
As you may have read here, I am trying to get my Bachelors of Nursing so I can use it in turn to get onto the 1 yr Primary School Teacher Diploma Course at the local University.
So I have decided to keep a blog about the ups and downs as this process emerges.
You can go and find out about my 'Bac to Skool' activities here.
If you want to follow this blog, please remember to add it to your list of blogs to follow.

As this blog was already in use, there were one or two posts already on it.
Some I was happy to delete as they were rubbish and did not need keeping, but one of them was quite significant.

When I was planning our wedding in 2008 my parents were stationed in Dubai and all my wedding dress plans etc were missed by my mum, someone who I would have loved to have had in the country with me at the time to go through it all. Believe me there was many a tear shed, from her and me, at the fact I planned my wedding without my mum in the country.
Whilst I was having my dress made we managed to get some pictures and I had to find a way of letting her see them but at the same time be able to add my comments about it so she could understand.
I couldn't just post them to my main blog as Steve was an avid follower of the blog at the time and checked it daily!
I also couldn't just file them in Word and then email it over and then spend hours on the telephone with her, but I worked out I could write a post about it and then get her to view it, that way she didn't have to download files etc and could easily view it at her leisure.
Mum had found all the material used in my dress in Dubai, I had a cream raw silk dress. The material was about 1/4 of the price there than here, so I got a very expensive material dress for next to nothing!

It actually worked too, she viewed the post and then we discussed it at length on the phone with us both having the post up on the computer. We were able to immediately view the picture that the other one was talking about.

So for memories sake, because I am big on keeping memories, here is the post I displayed on the other blog. Steve has actually since seen this and laughed at the sneeking activities that went on at that time!

Monday 25th August 2008
Wedding Dress

Ok, so this was the easiest way I could show you the dress and give you my comments at the same time.




I was a little unimpressed with the dress when I tried it on last week. Not actually sure what I was expecting.


Anyway, as you can see it is quite plan and boring, although it has not been totally finished off either so that may have something to do with it, it is a work in progress!
I not sure if I like the top and I don't like the seam that runs under the bust.

I do like the shape of the skirt, has turned out just how I wanted it.
The length is also a good length and sits well.

The whole idea of the meeting was to ascertain that she was working with the right size and to also decide on the material for the sleeves. Whether it was the silk or one of the laces you sent over.


The back of the dress is nice, although this is not the greatest picture of it. I am a little worried that it is too tight across the back, but Jodie still has to let the seams out which she was expecting. She is not happy with the hang of the skirt at the back so is going to redo it, even though she did say it needs a good press all over.



This picture shows one of the laces draped over the bodice. Jodie had this wonderful idea that we could use the lace over the bodice, have a cocktail dress with the same effect and think it is lovely. Anyway she likes the lace in the picture and after seeing it, feel that it complements the dress perfectly. Giving it an elegant, ancient old fashion look, so me and so just perfect. I also think that by doing that it takes away from the top the part that I don't like as I felt the top was a little lifeless.



Picture below shows sort of where the lace will come up to. Was interested in having it just hang, but a slight shortage of lace to be able to do that.



Was decided eventaully that we would do the sleeves in the lace as well, blend with the fitted bodice and it all looks so good together. There is a scallopped edge on the lace and Jodie is going to be able to get the edge of the sleeve made out of the scallopped part, so this gives you an idea on that.

Pictures below give you an idea of what the overal picture will look like with the shawl as well.
The colours all match so well I am impressed that we managed to do all this matching across the world.



End of post

Just so you can see what it eventually looked like, here is a picture of the finished dress on the day.
The light in the pictures from above made the dress look quite white and pale in colour when in fact it was cream, as you can see below.




Tuesday, April 27, 2010

School Countdown

In the car the other day Alex asked Ben the following....

"Will the teacher tell me when it is lunchtime?"

He was really quite worried that he wouldn't know when to eat his lunch!

Only 6 weeks until Alex starts school


Sunday, April 25, 2010

ANZAC

Today is ANZAC Day in New Zealand, April 25.
We get a Public Holiday today, well not this year as it fell on a Sunday, but any other year we get the day off, where ever it falls in the week. They actually passed an Act in 1949 that forbid the date from being 'Mondayised' meaning it had to be celebrated on the date, not moved to the closest Monday due to a weekend.

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I (1915).
Although it now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in all military operations for their countries.

Ben has just had a very small intro to the day at school.
They touched on it very briefly and are walking to the Cenotaph tomorrow morning with School to view all the wreaths.
As the park where the services are held is not too far from us we decided to take the boys to one of the services today. The 10am friendly service.
Most people get up and go to a dawn service, you know the type, up at 5am etc etc.
Not quite my type of thing, still sleeping at that time! Although this morning we did hear the plane that flew low over our area on the way to the service.


I decided that we had to dress nice for the service as I wanted to instill in the boys how special and important this remembrance is.
How we are lucky to have the ability to remember those that fought for us.
And how proud we are of those people.
I don't feel that this service is something you wear your scruffy jeans and t-shirt too, although I won't judge people by what they wear to the service, that is just my opinion.

The boys were very good at the service that was kept very simple and basic and was well attended by lots.
I think Ben will have fun visiting the Cenotaph tomorrow having been to a service today.

I look forward to taking them to a service again another year. This was actually my first service I have attended for ANZAC Day in the 12 years of living here, funny what you go out of your way to do when you have children just so they can experience important things to their country.

Sadly though, a RNZ Air Force Helicopter crashed on its way to a service in Wellington this morning. Killing 3 of the 4 on board.
Not what you like to wake up to on such an important day for NZ.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Countdown

7 weeks to go, 7 weeks till pleasure
1 man and his dog spot 2 little boys at school,
only 7 weeks to go.....
till this little flying munchkin goes to school

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Get Well Soon

It seems that in the last couple of weeks my extended family have all managed in some form or other to get sick.
So here is a big Get Well Soon to everyone.


My cousin is now hobbbling around with a brace on her leg due to the fact she has broken her leg and knee whilst out walking one morning with her teenage daughter.
I had to laugh at first because a) she was on school holiday at the time (she is a teacher) and b) why was she out exercising at 6am?
I just had to call her up and tell her what we all know anyway.......that exercising at 6am is just such a stupid thing to do!
She laughed and agreed that she must have been half mad to do it but that now she would love to be able to just go for a sensible walk.
So mend well Nicky and keep smiling.

I have not been well these past few days. I started with a cold and then on Wednesday afternon just got hit with feeling really crap.
All I wanted to do was lay down and after I had done just that I didn't really move for 2 days.
Last night I walked up the road to get Alex from Daycare, this was the first time I had been out of the house for 48hrs.
Man I felt weak.
I am feeling better now, but still not 100%. Hopefully I will be fine to go back to work on Monday, after lots of resting this weekend.

My Uncle has also been unwell.
He has had on going probablems with his abdomen over the last couple of years and unfortuately this saw him end up in hospital again this last week.
To add to this the pain and infection was not doing good things with his heart so it was a slightly scary time whilst he was in hospital.
He is now home and slowly getting better but does require an operation in the not too distant future.

So we are all slowly falling apart here at the moment.
I think we all need so juice of youth or what ever is out there to give you energy and spirit back.
Keep smiling all, we will get better soon

Friday, April 16, 2010

Car Racing

It is that time of year again when all the motor enthusiast and petrol heads descend on Hamilton for 3 days for the ITM Hamilton 400 V8 Super Car Racing.

The boys have never been into it, well they are only 5 & 7, and they do not exactly have a father who is a mad car person, although he does like a good car race.
Last year they showed a little interest but could more or less take it or leave it.
The V8's are racing here for 7 years, this is yr 3, so we still have a few more years to go yet, so have promised the boys we will take them, just going to leave it until they are a little older and will enjoy it more.

Unfortunately they are getting older and they are beginning to show an interest.
I am kinda glad really cause I was bought up in house with racing and sport, not that we played much between us, but I well remember Saturdays at home doing things around the hosue whilst the tv blared the latest racing from Rally to Formula 1, from Rugby to cricket.
I was there watching it on the tv when British Racer Damon Hill won the Formula 1, I remember Murray Walker getting all caught up with himself in that proud moment as he tried to commentate such a joyous moment, secretly, I love it all.
My dad and grandad use to rally, I have even marshalled at a rally.
My brother loves fast cars and racing and so I have kinda aquired a taste for it all.

So this weekend we were planning on going to the weekend, but Ben changed those plans by annoucing he wanted to watch the car racing on the tv. So home we are staying.

Alex even came home from Daycare today with his own #1 V8 Car, so I have a little driver in our midst.



Comes complete with his own sponsorship!

I think this weekend is going to be lots of fun, expecially as we can hear the buzzing of the races as they go round the centre of Hamilton which is all of 2-3ks away.


Pages

I have a blog with several pages!
I have finally found out about it all and have created some pages of my own.

Look across the top of the blog under the title banner and there is a line of yellow words, these are my pages.

So easy to create and so much nicer than having some many links and lists in the side bar.
I have
  1. my 'about me' page
  2. my 'Quilting' page
  3. my 'Free Patterns' page
  4. my 'Recipes' page
  5. my 'Wedding Day' page
I am having fun with my blog at present, why don't you go and try it out for yourself?

Quilting

As I have mentioned a few times before, I like to quilt.
And as I have mentioned many times before as well, I haven't had much time for it in the last few years, but that seems to be changing.

I happily read blogs and get inspired by what others are achieving and also looking at the wonderful patterns they have managed to find.
Now I also manage to, on occassion, find sites that have free BOM happening. Some of them I like and others I think I would really like to make one day.

Today I came across this site 'Val Laird' and she has this gorgeous BOM called 'Gifts of Grace'.
So I have set the site up so I keep up to date with each new pattern being released.
I think it is a cute little design.

I have also found free stuff over here at Bunny Hill Designs.

Not overly fussed about the current free BOM with Snowmen, but did love the one from last year, so have the pattern and will one day make it up. It was 12 designs around a basket for each month of the year, so cute.


Tuesday, April 13, 2010

School Countdown

8 weeks to go until I have both boys at school and get a day to myself!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Weekend

We had a very busy weekend with the boys.
We had lots of errands to run on Saturday but as the weather was gorgeous it was not too much hassle.
On Sunday we went over the Rotorua for my brother's Fire Station Open Day. We had a great time and I have lots of pictures to down load, hopefully on Wednesday, I will then tell you much more about it.

Today was back to work day for me, had last week off.
It was fun to be back, although it meant Ben had to go to holiday programme.
I don't think the cold he has is agreeing with him.
He Had A Very Bad Day!

I actually had to sign the report when I collected him because they had had to write a report on him because he had managed to punch someone in the nose in the morning and then stick his finger in someone else's eye in the afternoon!
He apparently said 'Sorry' each time but had no reason as to why he had done either act?
Now this is not like him at all, we have never ever had reports like this about him in the last 6 1/2 yrs.

So after so very sturn talking to, a 'we will get back to you with your punishment after we have spoken about it', lots of hugs and some Pamol, he has gone to bed and is now fast asleep.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for him.
Oh and he was sick in bed last night and unfortunately his baby got in the way, so she had to be washed today and he got upset because he wasn't going to be able to sleep with her! So he helped give her a bath, she actually sang during her bath (thanks to daddy!) and she is now drying on a towel next to his bed so he knows where she is.
Tonight he is sleeping with Patrick the green dog, Clifford The Big Red Dog's Cousin.

Steve had a Physio appointment this evening and that didn't go well either. She is not happy with him, well not happy with his hand. He is still having pain and lack of movement and she would have expected him to be much further along in his treatment and recovery by now!
So he is starting other treatment to try and help get the original treatment back on track.
Unfortunately unless his right hand ever gives him any real trouble I think it will be very difficult to convince him to have that hand done in a few years time as well!
He is not happy after having had this left hand done, especialy as we are now 5 months down the track and his diabetes is partly to blame for the slow recovery and he was doing so well in the beginnning.

Finally peace has desended over our house.
Good night

Friday, April 09, 2010

What gives...?

After rock climbing today we called in to the supermarket to grab some stuff for lunch.
Ben decided that he wanted hotdogs and Alex wanted chicken nuggets.
I happily sellected 6 frankfurters and a pack of 6 hot dog buns.
Then I spied something.......

A ready made up ready to cook pack of hotdogs (sausages, buns and cheese)
For 2 secs I wondered if this was the better way to go as it was $7.99

A quick check at what I had in my basket, 6 franks at $2.41 and pkt 6 buns at what I thought was probably $3.99 (normal price) as there was no sign.
I immediately realised that no I didn't need this made up pack as what I had was cheaper, ok only by about $1.50 but it did include cheese, so would probably work out cheaper, although who wants cheese on a hot dog? Mustard and Ketchup are fine thanks.

Imagine my surprise when going through the checkout to realise that the buns were actually only $2 for the 6, so I spent a grand total of $4.41 for my 6.
I am so glad I am more concious about what things cost nowadays and also that I know the prices of some basic things in my store to know whether they are actually on special or not!

School Holidays

Like most people, when this time comes around, all mums and dads cringe and wonder how they will get through the time!
I am no different, and I usually only have 1 of the 2 weeks off with them. They go to holiday programme and daycare for the other week.
Well this week has been my time with them, ok, it has only been Thursday and Friday as we were at the craravan for the other part of the week.

Yesterday we ran around and did 15 errands, we left the house at 8.15am and returned just after 5 after collecting Steve from work. (we are still a one car family, so schedules have to be organised)

Today we have had a quieter day. We have had the boys hair cut, mainly because head lice does not bowed well in short hair.
Yes we have had our first ever taste of the dreaded nits!
I can see how easily it can be missed, as I never realised Ben had it until he spent the night with Grandma. Mainly because she slept next to him and so she saw him scratching. I hadn't noticed at all.
But all gone now after some determined energy for 3 days, guess if you really want to get rid of them until next time, then you have to be thorough and continuous in your campaigne to get rid of them.

Ben has also always gone on about the Indoor Rock Climbing he did in the last school holidays with the holiday programme.
Yesterday we drove past the building and I promised we would return to suss it all out soon.
Well today was soon enough.
It was awesome....!
The boys had a ball for just over an hour for $11 each and that even allows them to return as many times as they like all day. So we are going to go back and show Steve when we collect him from work tonight.
With 2 boys it would be really useful if you could find another adult to go with you as you can only harness one child at a time, but the boys shared the time nicely and took turns with me. Grandma, maybe you need to visit during the holidays one time and we will take them both again?
It was also very difficult to get pictures of them up the walls because I was anchored right below them and not able to move to get a good shot.
The following pictures show you the amazing walls in the kids section for them to climb, some one had an awesome imagination when creating these.


Ben actually got to the very top of the snakes and ladder one!


Alex had a ball for his first time ever, he soon realised that even though it was fun to climb the walls it was even more fun to let go when mummy had him up there and then absail back down!
He got the hang of clipping on the harness very quickly and always wanted to do it all himself.

Will be fun taking them there again sometime

Thursday, April 08, 2010

No Turning Back...!

I posted last week about how I was looking into completing my Bachelors of Nursing.
Well, there is no turning back now, as prior to having our weekend away I collected all the relevent paperwork I needed for the application. I got it all verified by JP and completed all 10 (felt like it!) 5 forms required.

Today, I went to Wintec and officially handed in my application.
Now I just sit back and wait for the letter to tell me exactly what I have to complete to achieve my goal. Will probably be May before I know completely.

On the other hand, one of the nice ladies at Wintec sent me through the Bio for the paper I think I have to complete.
Well Steve and I had a good laugh reading it as it is all based around very basic leadership, change and evaluating of yourself as a nurse, or more to the point, how to analyse yourself and your practise as you become a registered nurse!
This course is actually focused at people who are just completing their nurse training, so I may find some of the lectures and papers very interesting as I will be bringing 15 yrs experience to the lectures!

Looks like it is going to be a fun year

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

School Countdown

We are at that time in our lives again when we are starting the countdown to school.
This time it is Alex who is going that way.

So we have 9 weeks to go until Alex turns 5 and starts school.