Saturday, September 25, 2010

Changing the Clock Time

Even though we officially went into spring as of September 1, it sure doesn't seem like it in the last few weeks.
We have had an awful storm crashing over New Zealand bring with it a lot of wind and rain.
Lots of power cuts, blown off roofs and floods.

And now to add to it all we have the joy of Springing Forward tomorrow morning when our clocks change for summertime.
Sure doesn't feel like it!


Monday, September 20, 2010

Anniversary

Today is our 2nd Wedding Anniversary.


Man the time just seems to have flown by. That means that Ben has been at school for 2 yrs and that just doesn't seem worth thinking about, it is going by too fast!

So to take you back to that wonderful day, here are a couple of pictures.




The men of the party all standing smart

The bride just had to pop up somewhere

But then the photographer suggested something that made the bride and groom wonder?
"you want them to do what?"


Pick her up, easy see!


Happy Anniversary Darling


Sunday, September 19, 2010

Background

Some of you, if you have been catching up on my posts, may have noticed that I had given my blog a 'spring feel'.
Unfortunately it was very slow in opening and for some it just wouldn't open at all, there by not allowing them to view the blog at all.

So I have reverted back to my Autumn/Winter background until I have 5 mins to work on choosing another one!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Going Out

It's dark and very wet outside there.
The rain has been thrashing against the house for several hours now.
Just the thought of having to go out in it is off putting, of having to enter into that wind and rain!
Luckily for me I am not needing to go out there, but sadly the cat sat at the bottom of the stairs is!

It is 3am, I have been awake, sort of, for a little while.
The cat, who was spared some grace by my husband at bedtime, is still in the house, although I guess I did agree to it, knowing it would be me who moved during the night to let her out (she only seems to wake me!)

As I open the door to that monsterous world outside, she jumps forward eager and ready to disappear, that is until she sees and hears the rain!
She flies back up 3 stairs very quickly, but then I don't blame her, who would really want to go out there like that at 3am?

Sadly I grab her and talk soothing words to her as I explain that she has to go out, I need some sleep!
And with that I close the door behind her

I know I will hear about this later, I know she will tell me all about it when I open the door later on this morning to let her back in but all will be forgiven. She will eat breakfast, spend the day sometimes in and sometimes out and then snuggle on our bed in the evening just hoping that on the off chance that when we finally go to bed we will either take pity or even over look the fact she is snuggled all warm and a sleep on our bed and not get thrown out for the night!

Tonight you will be going out, tomorrow is work and school. I need my sleep to be able to face another day.

So goodnight pussy cat, I'm going back to bed now.


Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Spider Web

I like to think I know a little about quilting, well I do, a little
But there are still blocks that I know nothing about.
After reading what Heidi had to say here I realised that I didn't know what she was talking about.
So using trusty old Google I searched for the answer and this is what I found..........Spiderweb Quilt.


What an awesome style of quilt with so many variations and styles available.
I love that further down the page the writer of the Spider Web Quilt page writes about how her son mentioned a spider web quilt looked like a pizza, I can so see that and had a giggle at that.

Guess I am going to have to put this on my 'to do list' or is that my "wish to do list"

Monday, September 06, 2010

Weird Thoughts

It is 9pm and I have been in bed the same amount of time as the boys! We all went up at 7.30pm.

I have a stinking cold and bed was the best place to be, ok so I am sat here with the Laptop, but at least I am comfortable and warm.
I am listening to the rain outside ever thankful that we are in a 2 storey house and the chance of us getting flooded is zero!
Not that it is raining that much, but with the floods in the lower North Island, the earthquake in the South Island and the major floods in Aussie, it is a thought that has crossed my mind!

But then I do not have to fear because there is a 1m difference between the land at the front of the property and the back.
We also have the Waikato river running up the centre of Hamilton, now ok we live, give or take a street about 500m away from the river but it is about 20m below our land level, the street we live in also has a difference of at least 5m between the top end and the bottom.
So when it comes to water levels, then I think we are pretty safe, plenty of areas for the water to run before it gets anywhere near our house.

Although if an earthquake strikes then we are probable screwed as we are in a 2 storey house. The roof could fly, the car could get locked in the garage and knowing our luck things would all fall down, although the middle of the street would be our safest place as we have no tall buildings around us and would not get hit by falling objects just there.

So here I continue to sit and check Facebook, blowing my nose and having weird and wonderful thoughts about what would happen if....?

Oh and I also got the emergency boxes out this evening and gave them a check over. A few things out of date but otherwise not too bad. A little supplying needed but maybe I will discuss that in another post later on one day.

I Close My Eyes

Drew back the curtains,
To see for certain,
What I thought I knew,


And I can tell you for certain that I knew the boys would love going to see 'Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat'.
Ben loved every minute of it, especially when Joseph ran up the aisle towards the end slapping high 5's and he managed to be one that got a high 5. He was even more excited after that.

Alex was not 100% sure on the whole thing. Seemed to love the first half but then decided at the interval that in fact it was time to "go home now" and it took a lot of discussing to get him to realise that we were not leaving yet!
However the 2nd half proved to be lots of fun and he was clapping and dancing just like everyone.

Unfortunately some stupid person me taught them the main song and so we have had 2 little people running around the house singing the following....

"A crash of drums,
a flash of light,
my golden coat flew out of sight,
the colours faded into darkness I was left alone..........!
May I return...to the beginning"

That is all they remember for now, but obviously they enjoyed the show enough to remember the song.
The production was awesome, I have seen this show several times over the years and this was a great one. Even Steve was well impressed with the production.

But then this show never dates and can be enjoyed time and time again. Sadly it may be several years before it comes back to Hamilton because it was the local Operatic Society that put on the show and I know they won't be repeating it for at least 10yrs given all the wonderful shows they could put on instead. (They last did Joseph in 1987 and next year they are doing 42nd Street) So maybe a big international company will bring it to Auckland one time and we can have a weekend away watching it up there? Can live and hope.

Bored

When I am bored with nothing to do....!
Which lets face it is really never!
Because with looking after the family, completing my studies, catching up with emails, thinking about craft (quilting, cross stitch, scrapping etc) and reading the occassional book, I never have time to be bored.
Although.....
There are times when I just need to chill out, have nothing planned and not really want to have to make an effort to get something out to do and organise, and so this is when I can surf on the net.
Usually I surf blogs, I bring up my own blog and the hit the ultimate button 'Next Blog'

Once upon a time, you got a few new ones and then you seemed to come back to one you had already discovered, BUT, nowadays they go on for ever.
I started blogging in 2006 and the changes I have noticed since that time is huge. More people are blogging. Yes ok America plays a big part in this, most of the blogs I come across are from people who live in the States and would you believe a fair few are LDS.
I love LDS people, I have some wonderful friends from past who are LDS.

They have some wonderful concepts on living sensible and wonderful lives. Families are everything and I love Family Home Evening, this is something that everyone can instigate in their homes to have quality family time at least once a week.
I also learnt from them about food storage and the importance of having extra food stored around the house in case you have to stay in your home in an emergency and can't get to a shop etc.
My food storage is not fab but it is enough that would see us survive for a couple of days at least before I would have to start getting too creative with food.

They are also huge on journal writing and lets face it, at the end of the day we are all now keeping journals. The plan and simple blog is now our journals and I love the fact that more and more people are stepping forward and keeping a memory of their time.

So the next time you have 5 minutes, go press 'Next Blog' at the top of your blog page and see who you might meet.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Picture Story

Take 1 birthday boy, 2 friends and 1 little brother and place them all in harness's and tell them to go and climb a wall or 2 and this is what you get........

















With Grandma here for dinner last night then we did the cake. He didn't want anything special so he chose a simple mud cake from the supermarket.
With the guys at McDonalds earlier in the day he just had cupcakes with 1 candle stuck in the middle.


Old enough now to cut his own cake!


Happy Everything

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Benjamin
Happy Birthday to you.....

Ben is 7 today and is such a grown up boy now.
You keep us amuzed all then time, you come out with some weird and wonderful things and we love you to bits.
Have an amazing day and I hope you have enjoyed your birthday weekend.

Also Happy Father's Day to all the awesome dads out there.
You do an amazing job and deserve a day of celebration.
Smile all day long and you will get smiles back all day long.

But on a sad note.....good luck to everyone in Christchurch. Hope you are managing to get your homes back into order. Hope you can find your Father's Day cards and presents for dad.
For those that don't know what I am talking about....Christchurch, NZ got hit by a 7.1 Earthquake yesterday morning at 4.35am. Cause quite a bit of significant damage around the city.
Loads of homes and buildings left without power and water and lots of people now having to survey their homes to ensure they are sound and livable.
A big clean up is all around which will be slow and steady.

Good luck to you all.


Saturday, September 04, 2010

Time Flies

This time 7 yrs ago I was huffing and puffing my way around the living room as I tried to convince Steve that this was no longer Braxton Hicks contractions and could just be that the little person inside was trying to get out.
It is now 9.30pm and 4 hours from now Ben was born.
I always (as mentioned in posts before at this time of year) love this day, as I get to reflect on the lead up to Ben's birthday before his actually birthday takes place. I always get all day and then a sleep and then we celebrate and of course this year with him turning 7 we are not allowed to forget it!

I think we have had a running countdown to this special day for the last 23 days!

Today he had his party, well not that he got one, he was allowed to invite 2 friends to do something special. So we went indoor rock climbing and then to McDonalds for lunch.
They all had a blast and I got some awesome pictures of them all up walls hanging and climbing. I will get them loaded tomorrow.
Tonight Grandma was a round for dinner so we did the whole birthday thing with her here. Banners up on the curtains and lights out as the candles were lit. It was great.
Although presents and cards are ready for tomorrow morning, got to have them on the main day.

Tomorrow is also Father's Day here in New Zealand, so 2 things to celebrate.
We are actually going to see a production of 'Joseph' tomorrow afternoon which should be a lot of fun. I love the music and have already played some of it to Ben and now he is familiar with some of the tunes, think we will have a great time at the show.

Have a great weekend folks. If you are celebrating then have fun and enjoy.