Scavenger Hunt # 6 - Someone or Something Napping

Like many other people in this hunt who have animals in the house there is just no excuse as to why this was a difficult item to obtain?

Maybe we were all trying to be ultra amazing and find something else a sleep to catch a quick picture of?
Yet when all else fails we resort to our original plan and capture that ultimate picture of our own little 4 legged friend a sleep somewhere in the house!

I give you our 2 cats enjoying our bed in the morning because that is where the sun streams in nice and warm.

They are on the same bed at the same time, just that Barney had managed to snuggle on the bed before I managed to pull the blanket back over!

Scavenger Hunt # 20 - Dinosaurs

Since the start of the hunt I have seen many posts from the other participants on their dinosaurs.
The family knew to be on the look out for them too as I was never really sure where they were going to pop up?

Finally those good ol dinos popped up in the last place I ever expected.......my cousin's bathroom.
Yep there I was minding my own business, as one does in a bathroom and I gazed across the room to the bath tub and there on parade, just waiting for me were the dinosaurs.....

I had great pleasure in informing the family that I had successfully found the dinosaurs for the hunt.
Yea go me.

Hair Styles

I like to think I am an open mother, allowing my boys the ability to try things that they want that I may not want so much?
When they both commented on having a rats tail at the back of their hair a few years ago then I couldn't see the problem, pretty much like when Alex asked for his hair to be shaved the last time it got cut, no harm there, would look short for a while but at least he can't say I didn't let them do what they wanted.
Point to self..........never let Alex get hair shaved again, it looked horrible and even his father thought so too!

Back to their hair.....these rats tails have been there for a few years now, luckily they have never complained at how theirs never seemed to get too long, like others they had seen. This may have something to do with

1. they can't see them
2. mummy was known to cut them at night without then knowing!

People always asked why they had them and how long they were keeping them for?

Ben finally answered that he was competing in an International Judo Tournament soon and that he would finally cut his then as his opponent could grab it during a hold down and use it to his advantage!

One evening not long ago we went out to my cousin's for his birthday tea and whilst there my uncle asked when it was being cut? Ben answered 'maybe next week' and suddenly my uncle was offering him $12 if HE (my uncle) could cut it now!

Ben was a little taken back but once he understood the idea he seemed to warm up to it slightly.

However then my cousin joined in an up'd the anti to $14. This went back and forth until such time as there was $17 in the pot, however my uncle put a time limit on this auction and Ben had to make a decision in a short period of time.

He didn't!

My uncle though agreed to start the auction one final time however he added a twist and said he would offer $12 if Alex would have his done too?

My cousin then up'd it to $14 and I joined in and told my uncle I would add $5 to his $12 and he could still have the pleasure of cutting the tails off? To me paying $5 to finally have them gone seemed reasonable enough.

My uncle then auctioned off the pleasure of cutting Alex's hair and so it ended with my cousin offering to pay my uncle $5 to cut Alex's.

Ben

It got very confusing at one point as to how much was in the pot and who was doing what?

But eventually it ended with my uncle cutting Ben's hair and my cousin cutting Alex's hair and the boys both walking away with $10 (which sadly they both owed us because they currently are in debt to us!)

Alex

Unfortunately we couldn't find really great scissors, so they were cut off using some simple kitchen scissors!! Which in turn added to the excitement of the moment.

It did mean that Alex walked away with a little bald spot on the left of his head, but hey it is at the back, he can't see it and no one else seems to comment!

It will grow back after all.

Scavenger Hunt #13 - A Fence

How can this be so difficult to achieve when every house on our street has a fence?
Instead I choose a picture of a fence in another street just round the corner from me!

A nice brand spanking new fence

Month in Numbers for July

It took me until 3 weeks into July before I managed to post my June Month in Numbers! So I am doing well to get these up in the first week!
I happily read others that got posted and kept kicking myself to remember to sit and sort the post out for my first ever month in numbers.

Julie, however had no worries, she was just happy that we wanted to play along and express our life for the month in numbers.
I will give myself a break though, I was a little busy as my new month in numbers for July will show.

I managed 2 of the communal counts:
How many photos did you take = 101
How many did you get printed = 11, well that is how many pictures I got printed in July but they were not of pictures taken in July! Does it still count??

You too can join in with this data collection for yourself each month if you are interested. Julie has an amazing page over on her blog that explains all about what we are insanely doing each month.
It doesn't have to be anything huge, you could even just start with the communal count that Julie has started each month in conjunction with MiN.
For August we have to consider counting the following:

1. How many people visited your house this month? How many usually live here?
2. What was the earliest time you got out of bed? Is this usual for you?

So feel free to join in if you please, we look forward to seeing you maybe in September with Augusts numbers.
Happy counting 1 2 3 4 5 6............!

To Call or Not to Call

Why do I get the feeling that phone companies have nothing better to do in winter than grab peoples attention with 'super great deals' that in the end will cost you more?
Turns out I wrote a post about this last June, so definitely a winter thing for them.
Once again the phone companies have been calling offering us a super great deal if we transfer our provider to them. You know the calls....the ones where everything will be much cheaper than you current provider as long as you are prepared to tell them what you are currently paying and then they will undercut that provider just enough to tempt you to change, to then only screw you in 12 months time!

It got me thinking though, why was I hearing from all the companies that wanted me but not from the company that had me and could explain why I should stay with them?
A quick call to my provider and suddenly I had saved $25 of my home phone.

"Yes madame we can do something for you....did you know the current plan you are on has been discontinued 18 months ago?......Wonder why they didn't call me to change it? Oh yea I know because I am currently paying them more money than the other plans are and so why turn down a customers money!...Did you also know that by continuing to keep you mobile phone with the same company you can save even more off your home bill? ......Again something I didn't know and could have gained benefit from for at least the past 12 months!....Oh and do you want to rejig your mobile plan while you are on the phone madame?"

Suddenly our home phone bill has been cleaned up and is now cheaper and I remembered that someone had called me to discuss my mobile plan a few weeks ago, in fact it was on the day I was going to have surgery and I was definitely not in the right head space at the time to discuss my mobile plan and the great new advantages I could get by changing plans! So I asked her to call back in a few weeks time, which she never did funnily enough!

This lead us to visit the shop of the mobile phone company because I was also interested in maybe, possibly getting a new phone. Something a little more user friendly maybe.
1 hour later and I walked out with a new phone, a new calling plan that fits my life and 1 very happy customer.

And the greatest thing about my phone?

The text messages show up like a little conversation. How super cool and cute is that?
Funny the little things in life that make you happy!

Scavenger Hunt #16 - A Windmill

I wish I understood why we get ideas in our head and then won't accept anything different?
The Summer Scavenger Hunt that Rinda is holding is a perfect example of such a thing.
I loved receiving the list from her at the beginning of June and was amazed at the instant pictures that appeared in my mind as to what I wanted to picture for each item.

Ok so some of them I had nothing from the very beginning and I have had to think a little about them but for the most I was doing alright, well I thought I was doing alright until such time as I had to actually find the said item I had pictured in my mind and then my luck got lost!

For the most part this is what I thought of when I imagined a windmill

Thanks to Channel 4 for showing Thomas the Tank Engine every morning during the school holidays and thanks to my husband for the fact we have a wonderful machine that allows us to pause live tv so I was able, much to the amusement of my children, run around the house like a headless chicken trying to find the camera so I could get a shot of the pause screen on the tv, all in the name of a Scavenger Hunt!!

I wish I understood why there is a lack of windmills looking like this here in New Zealand? I mean come on, doesn't anyone want the old fashion way of milling flour anymore? Obviously not.

This made me think of other places that usually have windmills.......maybe as ornaments in the garden, so off to the garden center I raced.
Yea right, cause people in New Zealand are obsessed with windmills in their gardens as ornaments.....NOT!
And yes before you ask I was going to sneakily snap a picture of an ornament in a garden centre and not buy anything!

"But your honour, it was the power of the scavenger hunt I was doing, it does obsessive things to your brain and body during the months of June thru September!"

I wandered all over this garden center, under the guidance that I was happily looking at all the beautiful plants that could adorn my garden. Alas a windmill did not come to hand.
I tried back in the gift area, as there seemed to be no ornaments in the outdoor area. There was however a beautiful sundial, it was impressive too, but sadly a garden center person was unpacking items just near by and even though I am sure they would have taken no notice of me quickly snapping a picture or two of this beautiful item, I was not taking the risk of them telling me 'sorry no pictures allowed' when I had yet to still locate a windmill!
And then suddenly something caught my eye, right over by the checkout.
Was it a windmill? Was it what I needed? Of course it was, it was just not the style I had been looking for.

Just to prove they classed them as windmills!

The pictures are not the greatest as they were taken very sneakily and very fast but finally I have found a windmill as required for item #16.
I wish I had been able to set the shot up nicer, although I did play with the red and white ones in the first picture to make them stand in the vase they were displayed in much better so I got a lot more of the heads in the shot. Anyone watching must have thought I was OCD the way I was trying to arrange the display of kids plastic toys.

This is after all a Scavenger Hunt and we will go to great lengths to obtain that one shot so we can complete the hunt successfully, well anyone with OCD will.

Happy hunting guys