Parents Centre

As many of you know, I am involved with a Not for Profit Organisation in New Zealand called Parents Centre.

They are an organisation who provide Antenatal Classes and Parenting Education Classes for new Mums.

I have been involved with them since 2003, when we did our own Antenatal Classes with them.

When Ben was 5 weeks old, I joined the committee of my local centre and now 6 years later I am still involved!

I have held several positions on the committee since joining and have enjoyed them all.

When we moved to Hamilton I transferred to the local centre here, and walked straight into the President role.

After 19 months in charge I have sadly handed over the reins.

My family no longer uses anything that the centre has to offer, not that that matters, as I was not involved because of them.

I was involved for me, for something that I wanted to do, something that I could give back with.

Sadly my interests have changed slightly, I am still passionate about what Parents Centre does, but I found that as my family have grown, then I had less time for them and was not giving the same amount of time and committment that they deserved.

So last week I handed over the role of President at the Annual General Meeting.

I thought it would be a piece of cake to hand over, as I was quite happy to see it go, but, it was more emotional than I imagined. I got choked on my Annual Report and actually realised what I was saying goodbye to!

I have not walked away totally.....I am still involved with the centre but I now only look after the website, which is one area, not 6 like I was doing before.

I have made some awesome friends through volunteering and I am eternally grateful for that.

I am not going to stop volunteering, I just need to take some time with my family and the maybe find something else to move in to that fits with my growing family at the time that I need it.

Dummy's

This morning Alex decided that his dummy's could go in the rubbish bin!

He has done this before and then a couple of hours later he has fished them out and washed them ready for bedtime.

But today he forgot all about them. I didn't! And they were duely fished out, washed and hidden in a cupboard.

That is where they still are at this present moment of 7.50pm.

Alex on the other hand is upstairs in bed, without one!

We have had a 5 minute rage, because there wasn't one available for bed, but we just calmly explained that he had thrown them out and I had cleared the rubbish. He even went so far as to ask me to go see if the bags were still beside the road!

After a while he calmed down, obviously realising that mum and dad were not about to produce one for him and he has now settled for the night without one.

So first 30 minutes looking good so far, will keep you posted as to how the night goes and how we get on over the next few nights.

One more milestone getting crossed off, next it will be 2 little boys dry at night without nappies!

Even before I managed to hit 'Publish Post', Alex has crept downstairs and demanded his dummy. It is going to be a long night!

Another Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear John and Ken
Happy Birthday to you…..

Happy 80th birthday to my dear father in law John. You are doing well for your young age of 80.

Also happy 55th birthday to your son Ken, my brother in law, Hope you day is good too.

Insulin Update

Steve went to the Medical Centre Pharmacy and the nice man very nicely gave him the ampule of insulin that he needed. Only cost him $34 and the man said that if he brings his next script there, they will give him a refund discount off of the script due to him having got this one ampule from them.
How nice.
At least that way as well they have history of the drugs he is on and then they will know him.

Insulin

Today has already started out well......!
Here is a conversation Steve and I have already had by 9am on a Saturday morning!

Steve: Oh I seem to be out of my long acting insulin!
Me: Well we better call the pharmacy and see what time they are open today!
Steve: I don't think they are open on a Saturday...!
Me: Well I will try.

Quick call to the pharmacy and discovered that indeed they are not open on a Saturday morning. So the conversation continues....

Me: Well you will have to go to the local Accident and Medical Clinic and see the doctor and get a prescription for the drug you need?
Steve: It's ok, I will be fine!
Me: What?? Till Monday?
Steve: Yes
Me: Well you just call you Dad when you have a hypo at 3am!

His Dad is currently staying with us, but he is almost 80 and is blind. So actually of no help what so ever at 3am.

Now I don't want to take responsibility for this. It is Steve's illness, he is a big boy, he can deal with all of this himself. BUT I am the one that will have to deal with this in the middle of the night when he has a hypo!

I am happy to remind him about the fact his drugs are about to run out, but again he is a big boy and can do it himself.

But for now, he has no long acting insulin and probably won't have any until Monday when I collect his script, which is a little too far away for my liking!

Consequently, Steve has just walked into the study and read this blog as I am writing it! I guess now he understands where I am coming from and has agreed to go to the local Clinic and Pharmacy to see what he can get.

Birthday Party

We have decided that we are not going to have parties for the boys birthdays each year. It gets very difficult to come up with something new and different each year.
And I have already decided this and they are still so young!

So we decided that we would celebrate their first 5 birthdays, they will then get to have a small gathering for their 6th as this will be the first birthday they will get to celebrate with school friends and then that is it until 10, then 15, 18 & 21. For all the ones inbetween they will be allowed to invite 3 or 4 friends from school to come home to dinner or out to a restaurant or an outing of some kind etc. We will have a cake but there will be no big party with goody bags and games every year.

So this year we already ran away from the house decided that we would have Alex's party somewhere other than at home. We ended up going to the local museum.
It was awesome.
I paid for the little ones and their mum's to get in and then we got to go round 2 of the kid friendly exhibites and have cake and juice in a room the museum supplied for us. They also, free of charge, provided a nice young man called 'Scott' to look after entertain the kids for an hour.

It was so worth it. No mess, no worries about property, no damage. All I did was supply a nice cake, some juice and some little party bags to take home. As we held the party at 2pm till 4pm I didn't worry about other food. It was awesome.

Alex now wants his 5th birthday there and Ben wants his 6th in September there!

Everyone had an awesome time and the kids loved it. Yea for other places to hold birthday parties.

On another party note, this post is my 700th.

Yea for me, another milestone under my blogging belt.

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!?