Tea Time Catch Up

Wow, where does life go??
1 minute we were catching up in July and now suddenly it is September.
I am so glad Abi reminds us about this little monthly catch up otherwise another month would have just slipped on by for me.
The clocks go forward for us here in New Zealand on Sunday and I am not sure I am ready for summer yet? Where did winter go? Was that it? Are we in for some rough weather before we start getting all those nice summer days? That is the typical way things seem to pan out down here.
So many questions and the only thing I can do is sit tight in my house and go with the flow!

Welcome to my part of the world, how is life with you?
I just made some chocolate brownie, please feel free to have a piece whilst I tell you what has been happening here.

I firstly want to say sorry for having not visited your place in the last month or so, but then I haven't even been keeping my blog up to date as it has not been on the top part of my priority list, which is a shame as I do love catching up with people but I do have to keep my family flowing first.
Life has been really odd since I went back to work after my surgery. Thanks for asking all is well and I am all recovered.
However I have found that life just hasn't flowed well in the last 6 weeks. I had to look after some students who were half way through a placement and I found it very difficult to make it work well.
I am glad that placement has now finished and I am on to a new set of students right from the start of their placement and so far it is all flowing nicely and I feel more in control.
I think that was probably part of the problem, I wasn't in control for the last part of their placement and it was very frustrating.

Even if the clocks do change on Sunday we have had some nasty weather in the last week leading up to us officially accepting summertime ahead.
The wind was blowing and the rain was lashing down.
The windows were rattling and the house was shaking. I was so glad we were all snug in our beds last week when the weather turned nasty for a few hours.

Wish I could say the same for the tree we are now missing....!
We opened the curtains at the front on Wednesday morning and this is what we found!

Turns out it was rotten but we didn't know it at the time.
It sure was a fun way to spend an hour after school sawing and cutting up wood and leaves. The boys had great fun.

Of course it didn't take too long to clear everything away. The neighbour came round with his chain saw and made light work of the trunk of the tree.
Nice little pile of fire wood just a shame we don't have a fire to burn it on!

We put the pile beside the road and with a few hours it was gone. Glad someone somewhere is able to get use out of it. Always do love playing things forward and helping people if I can.

We are just heading into 2 weeks of school holidays here too, so I now have to use my imagination and come up with some interesting things to do to entertain 2 boys for the next week or so on the days they are not in care!
Good job we are not having this little catch up in 2 weeks time otherwise I might be telling a different story, one that starts with how I lost the boys and don't know where to find them!

Thanks so much for stopping by for a little chat, it has been fun catching up with you.
Till next month.......

Tea Time Catch Up

Welcome on this lovely sunny Saturday, how lovely of you to have some time to spend with me this weekend.
I do love catching up with friends on the weekend, the week seems to go by so fast that I never have much time for it during the week.

You are in luck today as I made some Caramel Oat Slice the other day and there are still a few squares left, so let me put them on a plate for you and we can have a drink with them whilst we catch up.

This month for me has been very quiet, I have spent the whole month so far being reasonably good and resting in the house following my surgery at the beginning of July. Everything went well and I am mending nicely thank you.
Only problem is my current addiction to the computer game 'The Sims'.
What else was I meant to do sitting in the lounge all day on the lap top? I surfed all the sites I wanted and caught up with Bloglovin on a regular basis but that still left me with too much time on my hands!!

I guess the biggest thing to tell you about is the baby shower we had on the weekend just gone, not my baby shower by the way! My cousin's, she is due in September. Her sister just had a baby back in June so we are in baby fever at the moment in the family.
She decided that she didn't want a traditional shower with lots of ladies sitting around eating little sandwiches and blue cake (is a boy after all) and playing silly party games, she wanted a family get together where everyone could come together and have time to chit chat and a great laugh.
Talking of family here let me show you the crazy snaps from the baby shower, even though we were there to celebrate the little boy that is arriving soon unfortunately this little girl stole the show and the hearts of all that held her.

Yes my brother is actually feeding a baby
but the picture was meant to be of the 3 adults!

My Uncle and I while my brother go gaga over baby Leah

The star of the afternoon, baby Leah

My 12 yr old nephew thought she was adorable

This was him joking about how he could maybe get one to take home!

My husband being very cheeky to my cousin

Wish I could admit to not knowing any of this rabble
but the couple wearing glasses are Leah's parents!

Quick there is a baby.....let's take a 1000 pictures of her!

My own baby

Some more party rabble!

Every good Grandma making sure the baby stayes warm

 So that was our family rabble getting together to worship a darling little new girl who has joined the ranks of the family, poor wee thing, especially as once the royal baby was born her mother posted on Facebook that 'a future husband had been born!' and yes she stands a chance as she is half British.

Well I understand that this is turning into a busy weekend with others to catch up with, so I will let you go now. It is so lovely of Abi to hold these monthly catch ups so we can all visit each other for tea and cake, well if you are serving some.
I thank you for stopping by and I look forward to catching up with you again next month.

Tea Time in June

Oh my my, I totally forgot you were going to stop by, how lovely to see you again.
Please do come in, let me just put the kettle on or would you prefer a cold drink?

Winter has definitely settled in here, I do hope you had no trouble finding me here in the fog. Unfortunately it takes until nearly lunchtime some days for the sun to get warm enough to vanish the fog.
Due to the weather then I have been trying to get little projects sorted inside the house, much warmer in here. One thing I finally sorted was the green unit where the boys have been putting their completed Lego pieces.

It use to house all my family figurines but I finally moved them over by the window so the boys can have more space. Seeing as they are playing with the Lego lots at present then I don't want to keep standing on it...it hurts the feet!

I'm sorry we don't have any cake or biscuits in at present, I will be visiting the supermarket later today and seeing as I maintained goal weight at Weight Watchers and achieved Life Time Membership this last week then maybe I might just treat us to something really sticky and nice, to celebrate you understand. We did have some birthday cake for Alex when he turned 8 a few weeks back but it didn't last.

I am busy at present trying to find pictures for Rinda's Scavenger Hunt and the whole family is enjoying looking for items. I even managed to keep the boys occupied the other day by letting them take the pictures, definitely stopped them whinging because I took the long way home.
Although it is a pity that Rinda didn't ask for us to find a picture of a baby as my cousin who I mentioned last month had her daughter at the beginning of June so we have been getting so cute little cuddles, all of us.

Alex snuggling his new cousin

Life is going to slow down a little now for the next few weeks now as I am having my surgery on Tuesday and so we are all preparing for mummy to be out of action for a few days and then resting lots after that. I am hoping to get my blogging all sorted and tidied whilst out of action from work, hopefully when we meet next month I will be all organised and have more time.

So I look forward to catching up with you next month, I may even have done some baking as I will have plenty of time on my hands.

Take care and thanks for stopping by from Abi's place

Tea Time

Today I would open my door with eagerness as it is bitterly cold outside and I wouldn't want you standing out there for too long. So stamp the mud off your boots and come in where it is nice and warm.

I guess you have come over here from Abi's, so nice to see you. I am actually quite glad to see you as I am home today and not at work as I was feeling all blah and low this morning so didn't go to work. So having a friend come over to visit for a while is just what I need today.

Let me get you a drink, as it is so cold outside then I can offer you coffee, tea or even a hot chocolate. I do have a few biscuits in the pantry but not much as we are trying to cut down on how many we get each week at the shops.

Well come on through to the living room, by the way did you see the small clear space on the study floor as you passed by? That is what I managed to clear this morning of the boys toys, let's see how long it stayes like that for.

So what have you been up to? How is work? Are the family all well?
I do so love to sit and chat and catch up with everything that has been going on in our lives.
Work for me is going well, I am enjoying my 2 jobs and managing to combine them together nicely. I am still enjoying helping out at school 1 day a week and have become inspired to try and come up with things the children can do that runs along side their topic of that week.
Oh by the way, please come and see the back garden, isn't it looking so nice now that we have grass growing out there? It has only taken us 5 years to get to this stage, but I am impressed with it.

And as I have just remembered that this is your first time to visit me here is a flash back of what the garden looked like when we brought the house.

I am very proud of the work my husband has done out there.

My other news to tell you about is that both of my cousins are having babies this year. One is due in about 3 weeks time and her sister is due in September. The boys are so excited they love little ones and can't wait to babysit. If they had their way we would be babysitting for them in the first week, but I have had to explain that maybe we will wait until they are being bottle fed before we have sleepovers!

Is your drink alright, do you need a top up? maybe another biscuit before you have to rush away?
It was so nice of you to stop by and visit today, although I hope the bitter cold snap we are having passes soon as it is icy cold when you open the door at the moment, so when you leave please do wrap up warm and don't hand around outside too long I would hate for you to get cold.
I look forward to meeting up with you again next month and hopefully we will all have lots to tell each other.

Take care and thanks for stopping by x x