Support Person

I have unexpected become a support person this week.
Sadly not for someone about to have a baby but for someone who is going through open heart surgery.

A dear friend of my mum's has come to Hamilton from Rotorua (only place to come) and today she went to surgery.
She came to Hamilton on Sunday and I got told she was here Tuesday. So I skipped and jumped as fast as I could to her ward and said 'hi'.
Now I have been visiting her everyday, supporting her through her stay and today I supported her all the way to theatre.
As I write this I am waiting for the call from the hospital to tell me she is out of theatre and that her triple bypass heart operation was successful. She does have relatives but as her brother lives on an island 30 East of Auckland he is not readily available to her and her Nephew is in Rotorua but he can not be here in Hamilton all the time to support her. So she asked me to be around if possible, I was more than happy to help her as I know she is very dear to mum and their friends in Rotorua.

We have a long road a head.
She will spend the weekend in Intensive Care, I will visit but she will hardly know I am there.
Then she will move to the Cardiac ward and I will visit her lots more there.
Eventually she will be able to return to Rotorua where she has many wonderful friends to support her through the next 3 months of her recovery period.

Definitely turning into a village supporting one of their own.

Not Here

I have always thought of New Zealand as a safe place. Nothing happens here, we are always safe.
In 2001 as 9/11 struck, I was overseas and desperately wanted to return to the safe haven of New Zealand.
We have watched over the years the horror of other disasters and always been thankful that we don't have that here down under.

And now we do, everyone is speculating about their own home towns, what is the chance of it happening here? Are our emergency boxes up to date and ready to use? Do we have enough of everything to survive, like Chch is being told to, at home for 2-3 days with no water, gas or electricity. Do we have batteries for the radio? I know we currently don't and so will be purchasing from the store today.

Although staying at home is not really an option for Steve or I. Yes the schools are all closed so if it happened here in Hamilton we would have the boys at home but unfortunately we both work at the hospital. Yes ok as Steve mentioned last night, family comes first, but when you work in an area like we do you feel compelled to go and help, it is in our nature.
We discussed last night that only one of us would be able to go in and assist but which one.
I work in a clinical area and 90% of my colleagues are parents of young children as well, so we would be a little streched to get staff in, but we are in a specialised area and our area would be needed. Unfortunately, as already mentioned on the tv from Chch, people are having heart attacks and ongoing chest pain and they need to be treated. That is what I do.
Steve however, is the main person for the whole of our hospital looking after products. So he would be the main person coordinating obtaining extra products as required from the warehouse storage the hospital has off site. His job would be ensuring the products are getting to the right places as required and also obtaining further products, from medical companies, once the stock has been run dry, or more to the point getting the stock in so nothing does run dry.

So a little bit difficult for us, we are both in positions of need importance and would both feel bad for not being able to help in any way that we can.
Lets hope we never have to make that decision!

Ever The Little Helper

As always Alex is always wanting to help cook things in the kitchen.

Even if it is making pancakes with Daddy on Sunday morning.

Gardening

Alex is our little outside person.

If Steve is doing something in the garden, then Alex is the one to be out there with him, helping.

So for Christmas Santa was so kind as to bring Alex a whole lot of gardening items.

One being a wheelbarrow, as his plastic one has seen better days.

After Christmas Steve put it all together for him and he decided that it had to live in the garage just like daddy's.

In fact it has to live exactly like daddy's one.....!

Sanding the House

The previous owners of our house rented it out.

Turns out the previous people to live here liked fire!

So much so that they decided to have a small wee fire one evening and then thought "lets go bigger" and proceeded to place a couch on to burn, apparently the neighbours had to come over and threaten them with the fire fighters because the flames were too high!

Anyway, this meant we ended up with one wall that had the paint all blistered off. Nothing too serious, just needed to be sanded back and painted before the yucky wet winter weather sets in.

Steve got down to sanding this wall with a little help from you know who, that's right, our local helper, Ben.

He had such fun using the sander to assist with the sanding.

Lunch Helper

Ben is ever helpful. Always wanting to know what he can help me do in the kitchen.

Usually it is placing the rice in the water to be cooked, or holding the sieve to drain it when ready. he loves helping to serve the food on to the plates.

But best of all he loves putting on the oven gloves and cooking something, anything in the oven or grill.

Our Little Helpers

Our two little munchkins have really got into wanting to help us do things.

Ben is always planning what job myself or Steve can be doing next. How we will do it and also when!

Alex has just reached the stage of actually wanting to help you do something, like washing up or cooking the dinner.

We have fights in our house over who is placing the fish fingers on the oven tray to cook them and also who is going to stir the Mac Cheese when it is ready!

Shame they haven't yet learnt how to get the vacuum cleaner out when it is needed or how to clean the toilet? Maybe it will happen one day?

Although I am not going to hold my breath over it!

Being Helpful

Both of the boys have decided that they want to help in the kitchen.

Now there are certain meals that this works nicely with. Fish Fingers and Mac Cheese for instance, Alex gets the fish fingers out and puts them on the oven tray and Ben can whip up a great Mac Cheese from the packet.



Back in August, I went to a fundraiser that my committee of Parents Centre organised, we got The Destitute Gourmet to come and do a cooking demonstration. It was a wonderful night had by all, 3 hours of Sophie showing you how to make some basic meals, and get to taste them at the end. Being on the committee that organised all of this I was lucky enough (I think) to spend the evening in the kitchen helping Sophie. I learnt a lot.


Anyway, she showed us how to make pizza dough and then to cook the pizza. She talked a lot about getting the kids involved, especially with the dough making part. So that is what I did.
Now you don't do this when you are rushed, so it needs to be planned. You also don't worry about the mess, flour goes everywhere, but hey the kids are getting in there. (I will try and remember to post the recipe for you all to use, so easy)
This is only the 2nd time we have done this now, but Alex was so into this, he loved kneeding the dough and giving it a really good roughing up!

So if you have kids, even as young as 2, then plan to make your own pizza one night. The kids will love making the dough and then decorating their pizza, putting it in the oven and then eating it. Alex is half dressed due to the mess of flour going everywhere.

Now the other area they like to be helpful is in the cleaning department, well they try.
Alex has an obsession with the vacuum cleaner. He is always asking for it and if he can get his hands on it will play for ages with it, even though it is not turned on!
Maybe I can get him into walls and windows next!

Breast Cancer

October is of course 'Breast Cancer Awareness Month'

Now I know it is not quite October, but women need you.

Please tell ten friends to tell ten today!

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman.

It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing.

Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

Pass it along to people you know.

Mowing

When we got home from work today, Steve went and finished mowing the remaining little sections in the garden ready for the Open Home tomorrow.

He had a little helper in this project, one who seems to love the mower!

So there is Alex with his own little mower, assisting daddy to the best of his ability, just such a shame his mower doesn't actually cut anything! Would be so helpful if it did.

It was so funny watching him help daddy, as everytime Steve turned the mower off to empty the catcher bin, Alex would stop as well and turn the knob on his mower, at the same time as announcing to daddy 'I turn mower off too' then he would help empty the bin into the bag and then help put the catcher back on the mower.

He helped daddy do the whole lawn out the back.

Alex

Our youngest has just started coming out with so much to say. His favorite thing at the moment is to tell us "Me do it" He wants to help with anything and everything, and he wants to do it on his own.

Guess with him turning 2 in a couple of weeks, it is to be expected. Although he is still the baby, although he had a hair cut yesterday and he really looks like a little boy now, no more baby!

Oh and did I mention that he likes chocolate ice cream?