5 Years

No that is not the number of years I have been blogging (been doing that for the last 8 years!)
No, this number is the amount of years hubby and I celebrated for our anniversary last week.

Yes we are just mere fledglings when it comes to this marriage lark, well we have been together just coming up 14 years, so maybe not fledglings anymore!

We were lucky enough to have Grandma come look after the boys whilst we escaped for the night.
We went out for dinner, stayed the night in a cute little B&B and then had breakfast in a quaint cafe and then finally came home in time to collect the boys from school.

I just had to show you my dessert from our dinner out......

That is a white chocolate mousse, with dark chocolate ganache coating the inside of the glass topped with raspberry coulis and some sprinkled pistachio nuts.
Let's just put it this way, as hard as I tried there was still some left at the end!!

Valentines Day

Happy Love Day to you all.

If you have someone special in your life, then I hope, if you follow this day, that they have made you feel special.

Valentines Day is not something my husband and I do. I told him in no uncertain words years ago that I did not want flowers on Valentines Day! Because how much it would cost to buy them I would rather he spent that money and bought me flowers at other times of the year. It would still cost the same and I would get flowers more often instead of once
(Sadly don't get flowers at other times either, so that plan went wrong somewhere!)

However this day is special to me for other reasons.

Firstly, Happy Birthday to my Sister In Law Karen. We may not see you often but we still think of you all the time.

Secondly, today is my anniversary, no I did not get married on Valentines Day, I arrived in New Zealand on this day instead. Not intentionally I might add, just how it happened.
I arrived to start the rest of my life on this day in 1998, so today is my 14th anniversary.

Thirteen

For some people this number is totally unlucky, for others this is their lucky number.
Me, I come from the long list of people who are a little dubious of the number.

However for today only I am very happy with the number 13.

Why I hear you ask??

Today, as this post goes live, I will have been in New Zealand for 13 years.
Is this lucky or unlucky for me I guess you are asking...?

It is lucky.

I was 27 when I moved here and I don't know if my life would be where it is today if I had stayed where I was in England.
I was living at home, working as a Theatre Nurse at the local hospital.
I really, looking back on it, had no life.
I went to church every Sunday in the village but didn't really socialise much, there wasn't really anyone I wanted to socialise with. They were not my type of person. Don't get me wrong, I knew them all but they had all lead very different lives to me and some had great trouble in understanding the type of life I had lead up till then.
I had spent my main schooling years in a boarding school whilst my parents lived in foreign countries. I had travelled loads and had a very different out look on life. I was very strong willed, stubborn and very independant. If I wanted something to happen, well I just set about getting it achieved, within reason. I had very large grand ideas on what I wanted to do in life.

I hadn't dated for about 3 years, never met people to date either. So life just ticked over day by day never changing.

Coming to New Zealand, sort of made me have to start again. Make a difference, get a life etc and I did.
I met Steve within the first 2 months of working at Auckland Hospital but it was another 18 months before we finally got together as a couple and since we did that, then life has just rolled on forward.

So here I am now, 40 years old, married to my man of 11 years with 2 gorgeous boys, thinking how lucky I am to be here in this glorious country.
I am sure I would have survived if I had stayed in England but I don't think I would have been so happy, life would certainly have been very different there.

So happy anniversary to me and Happy Valentines Day to you all.

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

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.

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.

Anniversary

I am not sure if I am allowed to celebrate this anymore.....given the fact that I do now have a new anniversary date, but this is still a special date to me.

Today Steve and I have been together for 9 years.

So despite the fact I will now be celebrating Sept 20, each year, I will still remember this date as it passes.