Alex's 4th Birthday

Sadly Alex was still asleep when I left on his birthday at 7am. I gave him a sleepy kiss as I left and wished him Happy Birthday.

By the time I got home from work, made his cake and wrapped presents, it was 5pm and time to collect him from Daycare.

So our poor little boy didn't get to start celebrating until the end of the day.

We made up for it though with lots of balloons, presents and a chocolate cake.

My cousin and her fiance came for dinner and we had a fun evening.

Birthday table waiting for him to come home

What he so desperately wanted for his birthday, a fire engine and station. It was a hit!

Birthday cakes

Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Gareth
Happy Birthday to you…..

Happy birthday to my nephew Gareth, hope you have a good one.

Air France

We all unfortunately now know about the crash that happened on Monday somewhere in the Atlantic.
Nobody likes to ever think about an areoplane coming down, because lets face it....people take planes everyday, some even commute on them daily to work and think nothing of it.
We get on with life and tend to get blaize about the fact it won't ever crash.

If we do think about it, then it is only for a couple of days that we worry 'it might happen to me?' and then life just slips back to normal.

Today I read the newspaper and saw a story about the crash. It was listing people who had sadly lost their lives on the plane and what they had been doing in Brazil and why they were on the plane.
You had the couple who were on holiday, the scientist and his wife who were doing research, someone who had won the trip in an office contest and even a group of doctors who were taking a well earned break. But what really hit home to me and really shivered down through my emotions was the 11yr old boy who was flying back (on his own) to England to go back for the next term of Boarding School.

I went to Boarding School for 6 years in England and at the time my parents lived in several places around the world, in fact at least 40% of the kids at the school travelled by themselves to far away countries to spend time with their parents. That to us was life.
Now I think back to that time and realise just how lucky we were, we never had the headmaster have to tell us someone was not returning from so far away place due to a plane crash. I never once in all the time travelling with my younger brother thought about the worst thing to happen. I just got on the plane, put my headphones on, listening to the radio and waited for what ever crap awesome movie they decided to show us. (remember this was before tv sets in each seat!)

My heart goes out to those families, waiting in Paris for the flight that is never coming home.
It is everyones worst nightmare, and they now have to live it. I do so hope they are able to find the flight recorders to assit with the recovery for these families. It will be a mammoth task but here's hoping.

Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Alex and Malcolm
Happy Birthday to you…..

Happy 4th Birthday to a darling little son. Hope you have a most wonderful day.

Happy Birthday to my cousin Malc. Hope it was a good one.

Old Pictures

I came across some old pictures of family and friends the other day.

Unfortunately we do not have a scanner anymore, after Steve managed to burn it out when connecting it back up!

So to get these pictures, I used the old fashioned method of just taking a picture of the picture, thus the reason why the quality is not so good.

Me running for my life at school in about 1979, I was about 8 or 9.

Me at 17 in 1987

Me at 20 in 1990

My brother Iain and I in 1991

Me in 1994, I was about 23.

See, I can clean up nice when I have to!

Titanic

Everyone knows the story of the Titanic.

It has been made into a movie and there are countless books about that fateful day in April 1912.

So it was with much sadness, even though it doesn't directly effect me, that I read in the newspaper that over the weekend the last known survivor had died.

She was 97 years old. She had been on the boat at the age of 2 months as her family emigrated to Kansas in the United States. She lost her father but her mother and brother survived.

It is still a fascinating story that will be read with interest for many generations to come.

Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Olga, Penny and Tanisha

Happy Birthday to you.....

Hope you all have a wonderfully special day.

Queen's Birthday

Today is Queen's Birthday Weekend, so it is a Public Holiday for us. Yea a day off work.

In the car yesterday on the way back from the Birthday Parties in Rotorua, Ben heard on the radio that it was Queen's Birthday Weekend.
Now we have 2 more Birthday parties next weekend and 1 the weekend after.
So this charming little 5 year old piped up and casually asked "so are we going to the Queen's birthday party as well?'

Steve and I were wetting ourselves with laughter over this, just so Ben and just so cute.
We think the Queen would have quite a birthday party with Ben there to talk to her!

Busy Time

I am one that likes to keep in touch with people.
Ok I may be slacker now than when I was younger, but I do at least try and remember Birthdays for the people that are very important, like family & close friends and Christmas cards for people I manage to get in touch with once a year.
Now I know once a year is not good enough, but that is how life goes. We usually live in a different country and so therefore have absolutely no idea what the others life is like.
I am getting in touch a lot more with people's day to day activities through the likes of Facebook and email.
I use to write letters all the time when I was younger, but that seems to have stopped in this day, email is the way to go.
I can not believe that we get annoyed with people and feel they are out of touch if we are unable to reach them by email or mobile phone!

So I am in the middle of one of my busy periods when it comes to keeping in touch.
I have 17 birthdays in 4 weeks, all family and friends, but all ones that I HAVE to remember.

1. May 28 - Andy and Sam (2 very dear friends)
2. May 29 - Best Friends Daughter Eleanor, who is my son Alex's best friend
3. May 30 - My father's (was 65 this year) and my nephew Harvey (was 5 this year)
4. June 2 - Olga, my niece, 1 of my Aunties and a friends Daughter
5. June 4 - My son Alex and my Cousin Malc
6. June 6 - My nieces son Peter
7. June 7 - My nephew Gareth (married to Olga)
8. June 14 - My Father in Law John (turns 80 this year) and my brother in law Ken
9. June18 - My niece Sarah
10. June 19 - Another Aunty
11. June 26 - My nephew Joshua

Add to this I have 4 more in July, 2 in August and 5 in September then this time of the year is manic for birthdays.

BUT I love it......!

The Cats

Last weekend we managed to finally get to the caravan. We were away for 2 nights and the cats got to stay outside for 2 nights.
Nothing marvellous about this, apart from the last time we went, Prenzel took off in the 3 nights we were away, and it took us 2 weeks to find her and get her home!
So this time we were a little wary, even decided that if she disappeared again, then No, we were not looking for her!

2 lovely nights at the caravan and on our return, 2 lovely cats sat at the door waiting for us and telling us off for leaving them over 2 cold nights!

Looks like she might be happy and have decided to stay?

Another Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Dad and Harvey,

Happy Birthday to you.....

Have a great 5th Birthday Harvey, hope you enjoy starting school next week.

Happy 65th Birthday Dad (Granddad) hope you have a good day as well.

Toilet Training

Both of my boys are toilet trained, well I would hope so at 4 and 5 1/2 yrs old.
Neither of them are night trained though.
I am in no hurry to have them night trained, although I do think about the fact that I think the younger one will be trained before the older!

We do remind them about their nappies in the morning, unfortunately Ben wanders into us about 5/6am and we are not sure if he is dry as he comes into us because when he takes his nappy off in the mornings it is not always dry! Plus at that time of the morning he creeps in next to Steve and we are both still a sleep. Sometimes I can't even tell you what time he came to us because neither of us have woken to him coming in!
So we don't actually have any idea as to when he wet it?

But the other problem, is that I don't think he is ready to be trained yet, because he does not wake in the night.
To prove this, he proved it to us himself, by me finding him at 10 pm the other night a sleep in a bed full of vomit!
Yes he had vomitted and not even woken to the fact!

Now if he can vomit and not wake to it, then I don't think we stand a chance of him waking to needing to pee just yet!?

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Andy,

Happy Birthday to you......

Happy birthday to a dear friend of mine from the US. Have a great day and don't eat too much cake. Oh and also happy birthday to your twin bro Ed.

Also happy birthday to another dear friend of mine, Sam from England.

Hope you are all well and have a great day.

Lost

And sadly I do not mean the tv show that is all the rave at the present moment.....!

I mean Alex, who managed to dissappear today at the shopping mall for 10 minutes!

The ladies in one of the shops were very helpful indeed and I am very grateful to them.

To begin with I ran around looking for him and I was fine, but when I actually had to ask someone for help then the horror sets in and you loose it!

When found he said 'I was trying to get Grandad a box of chocolates for his birthday', we had been talking about that just before we went into the shop he wandered from.

All ended well and he was very good for me after that, even sat and smelt the flowers in a gift shop while I paid for our purchases.

Shame the flowers weren't real!

Food

Ben is a fussy eater, there is no 2 ways to put it to even say he is not.
He just doesn't have the wide palate of taste of others and so is very limited on the foods he will eat.
He doesn't like dairy, no cheese, yoghurt etc
He is not a great fan of tomato based sauces or spicy.
He only likes potatoes that are mashed, doesn't like things that are fried. Not a great fan of the fat. (not that that is a bad thing)
He is also not a great fan of sugar, again not a bad thing. He does like chocolate cake and twix bars but doesn't eat candy.
He will eat rice and pasta, plain, until there is nothing left! He will also eat bread continuously until there is nothing left!

He loves Apricot chicken, mac cheese and fish fingers, chicken noodle soup, meat balls and fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, mince and pots with sweetcorn and sausages.

So when you do serve a dinner that he likes, then it disappears very fast sometimes.

BUT he has got into, not sure if it is a habit or not, of wanting something to eat an hour later just as he is going to bed. Now usually it is cereal and I have no problem with what he is eating prior to bed, it is just the fact that sometimes he is planning this cereal whilst eating his dinner!

He will finish dinner, in which he will eat everything given to him. We will then sit down and watch Friends on the tv, and he will then say 'Can I have something to eat please?'
10 minutes prior to this as finishing dinner he will say he is full and then suddenly he is hungry and wants food?

We tell him that he has to wait for his food to go down, to even register that he has eaten dinner, which he will do but he is still then planning food prior to bed.

So is he really needing this food at bedtime or has he got into a habit?

It doesn't happen every night, so he can do without it. But it is the fact he is planning it during dinner time. He will say 'if I finish all this can I have cereal before bed?' We do then tell him that finishing dinner has nothing to do with getting food later and that if he is hungry then to say now and we will get more food for him, but then he says he is full and doesn't want anything!
Sometimes he is having as much on his plate as I eat. I am nearly 40 and he is 5 1/2!

Is this normal?

Getting Older

This will hopefully be my attitude and outlook when I am older......

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly.

As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself.

I've become my own friend.

I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed.

Or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio.

I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon;

before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60's, 70's & 80's and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will!

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.

They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful.

But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten.

And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken.

How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car?

But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.

So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think.

I don't question myself anymore.

I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question..............?

I like being old.

It has set me free.

I like the person I have become.

I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be.

And I shall eat dessert every single day(if I feel like it).

MAY OUR FRIENDSHIP NEVER COME APART ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART!

MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A RAINBOW OF SMILES ON YOUR FACE AND IN YOUR HEART FOREVER AND EVER!

FRIENDS FOREVER!

Ponderisms

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

Never take life seriously Nobody gets out alive anyway.

There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.

Life is sexually transmitted.

Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

T-Mobile Mom to Mom Quiz

Mary over at Owlhaven had this quiz on her blog. Looked like fun.

T-Mobile Mom to Mom Quiz: "

You find opportunities for learning everywhere. Curiosity is the natural thirst for knowledge and you always encourage your kids to discover, explore and ruminate. You want them to think for themselves, but will point them in the right direction.

Accidents

Ben has managed to have another accident with something sharp and his fingers!
This time he was at school, and whilst using safety scissors has manged to attempt to cut off a finger on the other hand!
Clean and simple cuts, well one is a little deep, he has managed to place a cut either side of the finger at the base.
No problem with this but try telling a 5 yr old not to move the finger whilst it is healing!?
Exactly...!
So he now has a splint on the finger, it actually looks a little over the top for what he has managed to do, but hopefully it means it will heal great. Sadly he is not a fast healer, things seem to take ages, he seems to have fragile skin.

He is coping very well with a splint on his hand and one finger pointing upwards. Sadly it wasn't until my cousin visited yesterday that we noticed that he is actually showing us 'the birdie' or 'the finger' everytime he puts his hand up to show anyone.
Quite amuzing actually. Good job he is only 5 and has no idea!

Before I Was a Mum......!

Before I was a Mum,

I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.

I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.

I never thought about immunizations.


Before I was a Mum,

I had never been puked on.

Pooped on.

Chewed on.

Peed on.

I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts...

I slept all night.


Before I was a Mum,

I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.

Or give shots.

I never looked into teary eyes and cried.

I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mum,
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.

I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

I never knew that I could love someone so much.

I never knew I would love being a Mum.

Before I was a Mum,

I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body..

I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mum,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

I had never known the warmth,

the joy,

the love,

the heartache,
the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mum.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,

before I was a Mom......

Awesome Mum's

To all the most awesome mums in the world...Happy Mother's Day

We are all truely lucky to be able to place ourselves in this most wonderful group.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and that whereever your munchkins maybe, that they remembered you in someway or other.

To all the new mums this year, welcome to an amazing group, you are very special indeed.

So did my wish list get answered?

Yes........

I got a Willow Tree Figurine and a Jewllery Tree and the most adorable hand print card from my school child with choc dipped goodies all wrapped up. What a fab teacher he has.

Memories

Since re joining Facebook in January, I have hooked up with several really old friends from long ago.
We are talking about friends from over 20 years ago.
And so the memories have been flying around in my head for the last month or so.

I am having my own little party, in my head, remembering all the fun times I had in my youth.

Things like.....

1. Wapak State Fair
2. Walking in the rain
3. Friends Wedding that I went to the US for
4. Visiting OSU
5. Happenings at school (I went to a boarding school, so lots of things to remember)
6. Trip to Jersey
7. Funerals
8. and many many more things

I am having a great time at the moment!

Updated Wish List

Last night I suddenly remembered 2 other things I would like on my wish list.

A Wii game console wouldn't go a miss in this house, which means that I could then get the Wii Fit add on to go with it. Looks like such fun.

I also quite fancy one of those Nintendo DS. I think a bit of brain training is just what I need at present, keep my brain active and sharp and all that etc.

Whats on your wish list?

Wish List

Mother's Day is 1 week away and I have dropped lots of hints to the boys as to what I would like. Not sure whether they will have told Steve, or even be able to remember what I have hinted at...!

So here is my wish list, just in case you bump into Steve during the next week!

Anything by Danielle Steel is always going to be on my list. I have read just about all of her books, but she still keeps coming out with new ones. So the latest book will not go a miss if it came my way.

A new tv for the bedroom would be good too. We currently have one in there, but it is so old, it can't have a DVD player attached to it, as it does not have the outlets for one! Not that we get to lie in bed and watch many DVD's, but would be nice to have somewhere to go and watch something if Steve is watching something that I don't favour!

A new scanner for the computer would be nice too. Steve managed to burn out the other one when he connected the computer up last year!

As all women would like, I too also want a Pandora Bracelet, a gold one, as I am a gold person not silver. This bracelet would be the gift that keeps on giving, as they would be able to buy me new charms each occassion they needed something to buy mummy and all their problems would be solved for years to come. Although occassionally I would like to receive more than just a charm. At the end of the day though, just a good old fashion bunch of flowers would be totally sufficient, given to me in bed with big hugs and lots of sloppy kisses. Oh and maybe with breakfast on a tray?

Cats Update

Prenzel has settled back into the house as if nothing had ever happened!
She actually seems more settled this time. Her and Barney are getting on very well, as if they have been together for ever. A little bit of sqwabbling, but nothing 2 cats don't always do.
They are peaceful and quiet in the evenings, and apart from the odd day when you have to throw them out at 4am, they are pleasant in the house at night.

Maybe the next time we go away, she will stick around and be more pleasant!?

All Day!

Last night I realised that I had nothing planned on the calendar for today.
Yea I thought, I can finally get all the linen moved into the new cupboard.
By the time I went to bed though that had changed slightly, there were several small errands I could run, but they shouldn't taken me too long.

Turns out, Alex and I managed to stay out all day and I am not sure how??
We left the house at 8.20 to take Ben and Steve to work and school.
I left school at 9.15 after catching up with Ben's teacher, saying hi and chatting with my work colleagues who just happened to be at the school vaccinating the girls there today, oh and I also had a quick chat with the lady from the PTA about some books they sold the other weekend.

About 9.30 I ended up down town meeting a friend for coffee, we so needed to catch up because we hadn't seen each other for a couple of weeks, we managed to hash out her twins 4th birthday party for Saturday, so she now feels happier about what is happening.
We then had a quick look in 'The Bra Shop' on the way back to the cars. We desperately tried to show Alex which pieces of lingerie mummy would like for Mother's Day next weekend so he could pass the info on to Steve. Not sure if anything went into his little head?!

I then zoomed across Hamilton to take Alex to a make up swimming lesson because he missed his lesson Monday. He was not the most pleasant student he could have been today. He messed around a lot and at one point I actually gave him the choice of staying there or getting out and going home!

So at 11.15 we were then going across to The Base Shopping area, because we were that end of town, and I needed to check out a shop there that hopefully sold long black trousers for Ben for school. No luck but they did have black socks, which he also needed for school. I also had a look around the shop whilst Alex played in the little play area, helps him stay happy if I let him have 5 mins at something he wants to do.

12.00 and we arrived at Bunnings (hardware shop) to get the paint sorted out because it is not yellow enough. Unfortunately 5 mins after arriving Alex had to visit the bathroom, so that took ages because it was the other end of the store to where we were and the store is a huge warehouse style shop! So we sorted the paint, checked out door stops, found a new shower caddy for the shower wall and checked out new laundry bins.

Now I realised that it was lunchtime (12.50) and we still needed to get to the tile shop, so Alex and I ended up having BK for lunch, this took another 1/2 hour because of course they had a play area and I again knew Alex would stay nice if given 10 mins to play.

After lunch we raced back to the other side of Hamilton and went to the Tile shop. I had sample tiles that needed to be returned and other colours to check out. Found some more samples to bring home and also discovered that they have 25% off all tiles till the end of May, so guess we will be getting the tiles very soon so as to get them cheaper.

Called into the Land Transport office down town to collect some brochures for Parents Centre and then realised what the time was so decided to come home for 30 minutes before going out to school to collect Ben (school ends at 3pm).
Unfortunately, Alex and I hadn't managed to get to the supermarket to get more bread and milk, or the ingredients that Steve needs to make a cake for work, so after collecting Ben we went there.

It is now 4.30, I know what we are having for dinner tonight, Steve needs collecting from work in 20 minutes time and I am out tonight just before 7pm.
Man and I thought I was going to have a quiet day moving the linen into the new cupboard!

Found

Once again we are a 2 cat family.
Yes that is right, the elusive wandering cat has been returned to us after 2 weeks away.

A nice gentleman called today to say that he had been given our details by the SPCA and he wondered if the cat that he had at his mother's house was ours?
Turns out she had arrived there about 36 hours ago and he had took her in and looked after her, fed her and then called the SPCA to see if anyone was missing her, because she was pleasant, well groomed and had a collar on.

Luckily I had called and informed them that she was missing last week and they in turn placed her on their 'lost and found' board.

Let's see how long she sticks around for this time!

Anzac Day

Anzac Day is a national public holiday in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Anzac Day is also observed in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga.

Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs. Anzac Day remains one of the most important national occasions of both Australia and New Zealand. This is a rare instance of two sovereign countries not only sharing the same national day, but making reference to both countries in its name.

The Gallipoli campaign
When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a Federal Commonwealth for only thirteen years. In 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula, under a plan by Winston Churchill to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied navies. The objective was to capture Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany. The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish Army commanded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. What had been planned as a bold strike to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stale-mate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. News of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April quickly became the day on which they remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in war.

Though the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives of capturing Istanbul and knocking Turkey out of the war, the Australian and New Zealand troops' actions during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as an "Anzac legend" became an important part of the national identity in both countries. This shaped the ways their citizens viewed both their past and their future.

Every April 25 there are dawn services held all over the country to mark the significance of this day to New Zealand history.

Kindness

One of the cats, Prenzel, has gone for a walk!

We always guessed that she was a wanderer, but never thought she would prove it to us within 8 weeks of having her.

But what gets me, is that there are still some kind people out there!

We have put fliers in peoples mailboxes this week and we have had 3 calls about it. Now people don't have to call but I was really touched that they took the time to call and say they had seen a cat like ours around in the last hour, day or week.

The boys don't seem too bothered that she is not here. They know she has gone for a walk but they are not all that upset by it?

I do miss her, she is so cute. But if she is a wanderer then maybe she doesn't want to live here. I don't want to go away for the weekend wondering if she is still going to be here when we get back each time?

Barney is not at all bothered that she is not here. She is ruling the place like this is what was meant to be!

Life

I keep coming up with things to write about when I am out and about, but by the time I get home and get to the computer then I have forgotten what I wanted to write about them!
But having said that, I actually don't have the enthusiasm for it at the moment.
I have noticed that occassionally I find that life gets all too much and I can't think straight and I guess this week is one of those weeks.
The house is a tip due to the bathroom being done.
The workmen are coming in day by day or every other day and so therefore, nothing can be put away because it just has to be dragged back out again.

The week is not panning out quite like I wanted so things are getting all jumbled up, so bear with me whilst I am not around. I know I have some things to tell you about from our holiday last week but they can wait.

Steve and I have a date night on Thursday, so I will concentrate on looking forward to that because it is our first one in quite a while!

For a Reason

I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason.
It was meant to be as far as I am concerned.
Ok I haven't quite found the reasons behind the really bad stuff like death, destruction and war, but there has to be a reason somewhere?
If you go for a job, then if it was meant to be yours then it will be, but if not then someone had a better plan for you.

Sadly my brother has just lost his job. I kinda wish it wasn't meant to be but it is that typical saying "when one door closes another one opens" well that seems to be just what is happening with him.
He had a big talk with our dad last night and already several little options have come to light, now ok, nothing may come of either thing but it gives him hope. It allows him time to think things through sensibly.
He has already thought about a different direction, something that flows on from some things he is already doing on a part time basis as a hobby. So even though it is not nice, maybe this was meant to be, this was the push he needed to change direction.

When he moved to New Zealand just over 18 months ago, it was on the understanding that I sponsored him for his visa and this meant he was not allowed to claim benefit from the Goverment for the first 2 years.
Well now he is unemployed guess who has to support him!? Well at least according to the Goverment.
Maybe I will send him a food parcel at the weekend, isn't that enough support? 1 a month for the next 6 months should see him through nicely?

Bikes

Ben has been slowly learning to ride his bike without training wheels.
When we were here several weeks ago we took 1 of the wheels off.
He wasn't entirely happy about riding it that way, but he managed and all was going well, that was until the remaining wheel broke.
So this week our mission, if we choose to accept it, was to get Ben riding his bike with no training wheels.

I think we may have managed. he can ride his bike with out training wheel once he gets going, but he is having a little trouble getting started.
He just has to learn how to push him self off and keep peddling at the same time.
Practise, practise, practise....

We have the rest of the week here at the caravan, so we are not going anywhere. Plenty of time and space to practice.
Oh and incentive too....as lots of the other kids are riding without training wheels and he doesn't want to be left out! What more incentive could any child need?

Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to Lucy,
Happy Birthday to you....

Happy Birthday to my cousin Lucy, grand old age of 22 today

Holiday

We are currently having school holidays at the caravan, well at least I am with the boys, Steve is at home working.
Feel a little like a WAG (wives and girlfriends) as currently at the site there are several families here without husbands, as they are back home working. The pool yesterday was filled with mums and kids but no dads!
The weather has been kind to us and the kids are spending the whole time outside running around and riding bikes. I am loving that because I have never had so much time on my own and not had to worry about what they are up to or had to come up with entertainment continuously.
The other side of that coin is the fact that by 7pm everyone is so tired they fall asleep very easily and sleep most of the night. It was 7am when we all woke this morning. My type of holiday.

I have noticed, however, that due to being away my blogger reading list is mounting up each day. Of course I have to pay to use the computer here, so I have a whole heap of blogs to catch up on when I get home!

Over the Easter weekend the campsite was full and we managed to get several games of cricket going. Well the best you can get when the average age is about 6 yrs old! But anyway, everyone that joined in had a blast and seeing as one of the games lasted for 3 hours! it was just a continuous rolling game. People came and went, parents dealt with kids and still there was always someone to keep the game playing. The kids had a blast, but then so did all the parents that joined in. We had some very budding cricket players in our midst. Some good throwers. Watch out Black Caps we are grooming the next intake for you!

Hoep you Easter has been as much fun as ours?

Holidays

Happy Easter to you all.

Hope you have a good holiday for however long you have available.

Hope you have fun at the egg hunts you attend and don't end up gorging on too much chocolate!

Manners

Where have all the manners gone in the world?
Are parents just giving up on teaching their kids about a simple little thing like 'please and thank you?'

Is it pc to not use manners now?

At the weekend I was in Rotorua for my mum's birthday party and I nipped out to the local store for some supplies and whilst I was there I witnessed 3 counts of parents demanding from their kids rather than asking nicely!

1 person I followed out of the store (she was leaving at the same time as me, I wasn't actually following her!) and watched her as she put her bag in the car. She then turned to the 2 yr old with her and said "get in the car" no please with it at all.
The child sort of ignored her and then she tried again, same result. Then in a fierce voice she more or less demanded.
Now I am not saying that the child would have jumped to it if she had said please, but what happened to trying?
What happened to keeping this parenting lark stress free and friendly? After all, yes we are the parents but we are not the dictators, the children are people in their own right and deserve some respect otherwise they will grow up with none!

Some come on guys, lets remember to say please and thank you to our kids, it may for a while feel like you are constantly saying it, but they do get it eventually at some stage.
I am beginning to feel like all the manners and values my parents instilled in me are now lost and I don't like it. Maybe I am old fashion in my outlook on life but manners is such a simple little thing that people like, so let's look at keeping them around.

Goodbye

Goodbye to the shower and the vanity with the black tile surround.

Goodbye to the pink bath.

Goodbye to the sink that had no working hot water tap.

Goodbye to the black lino on the floor and the black vinyl wallpaper with little pink flowers.

Hello to the nice builders, plumber and electrician who are now installing our new bathroom.

Death

Last week, as we were driving to collect Steve after swimming, Ben sat in the back of the car and told me he was never having anything to do with daddy ever again! Typical 5 yr old thing and I thought not much more of it.

On further discussion, he listed everything he does with daddy and said he was never doing them again. No sitting next to him, no wrestling, no reading books, no playing etc, you name it he wasn't doing it!
I asked if he was talking to daddy and he said "maybe tomorrow"

I was quite shocked, I wondered exactly what Steve had done to warrent such exclusion from Ben's little 5 1/2 yr old life?

But what Ben told me was the reason for this sudden departure from his life was more of a shock than anything I was ever expecting............he had decided to exclude daddy from everything because daddy was going to die and there would be a funeral.

I was gobsmacked. I felt like someone had just twisted my heartstrings and said 'welcome to the rough side of motherhood'
I had a quick discussion with him whilst we drove across Hamilton to collect Steve, explaining that yes one day daddy would die and that yes there would be a funeral, but that hopefully Ben would be at least Steve's age before that ever happened.

When we collected Steve from work, before I drove off, I told Steve about our little conversation. I got Ben to tell Daddy why he was not having anything to do with him.
Whilst he was telling this, I sat there with tears rolling down my cheeks.
Steve was more concerned with me to begin with, he wanted to know what was wrong, but then I said "ask him why he doesn't want anything to do with you?"

And so Ben told him he was going to die and there would be a funeral.
Steve was a little taken back, but again reiterated exactly what I had said to Ben earlier. Reassuring Ben that he could still be part of daddy's life, as daddy was not going anywhere.

We did decide to mention it the next day to Ben's teacher, as it was obvious it had come from school. Ben said they had discussed it during news time!
The teacher informed us that no it hadn't been discussed during news, but that one of the little girls in the class had sadly lost some family members a couple of weeks ago and she was having a very hard time getting over it and she was still quite angry. She said she would make sure they had a healthy discussion about death as a whole class because she was aware that this little girl was mentioning it to all the children during break time and upsetting some of them.

I know this is something that we can't avoid, and I am happy for Ben to know about it. I know there is never going to be a good time in his life to bring up death. It was just the sudden way he was dropping Steve from his life that got me.

Fall Back

Tomorrow morning we have that wonderful pleasure of gaining an extra hour in the day.

Yes we are in that transitioning faze from Summer to Autumn and our clocks are falling back.

It will be nice to actually go to work in some daylight, seeing as how I am usually at work at present just as the sun in beginning to start shining.

Now if only we could get the boys to understand the 'extra hour' in bed part and actually stay in bed for the extra hour!

Yea right, like that will ever happen. Guess we will be having breakfast at the normal time, just with the clocks saying a slightly earlier time!

Our Saturday

So what have we been doing today?

Well last weekend Steve and Alex tidied up the flower bed out the front of the house. Alex had a ball and also got filthy dirty!

Today I managed to get at least 3 loads of washing done and out to dry in the beautiful autumn sun.

Our new gazebo for the caravan arrived during the week, so we got it up to check it all out, before we go for the Easter weekend.

And I managed to get some autumn colour to put in the freshly organised flowerbed, so Steve and the boys, oh and Prenzel the cat, got down to business and put them all in for me.

Hope your Saturday was as much fun as ours?

65th Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy 65th Birthday to Grandma,

Happy Birthday to you.....

Big party on Sunday, so hope you have a good weekend.

Twilight

Yes we had the Twilight movie here and yes we have had the books but not to the extent that I think others have had them!

I have started to read the series, yes, I know....where have I been? Why has it taken me so long to catch up with Bella and Edward?

There just wasn't all the hype here in NZ like there was in the US!

I knew about The Twilight Movie at the end of last year from reading everything that Julie wrote from My Journey to Family.

I then googled it to find out what was so special about the movie? Only then did I find out it was taken from a book that had been written and caused so much ho ha amongst the ladies.

It came out in NZ just after Christmas, but there was no hype, no special previews, no crazy girls going silly in the sun waiting for the midnight showing or anything like it.

It was a movie, it came out on a Thursday like all others and if you knew to watch it, then goody for you.

So while you are all still going gooey over Edward dolls, we still have people who are only just discovering the series, in written form, let alone know there was a movie made!

It is due out on DVD here soon and I am sure there will be a bigger uptake on this than the movie at the cinema mainly because the books are everywhere, people are now talking about it and most people have read the books.

Me, well I am now on book 3. Yes I am enjoying them, they are different. Although I did find book 1 a little boring, book 2 was interesting and I am now only at the beginning of book 3.

I will get the movie out on DVD from the rental store when it is available. I am interested to see it now, but am glad I have read the book first!