Birthday Boy

Today is our big boy's 5th Birthday.

We have finally got to the next chapter in his amazing life.

He woke us up this morning saying 'Get up guys, let's start my birthday'

We of course had presents that went down a treat. We managed to get just what he wanted.

He got a scooter, which he has seen lots of kids ride to school, so of course he wanted one! Although he wont be riding his to school.

He got a view finder, with several extra discs to look at. Now these are not new because I had one when I was his age. They make a come back every so often. I love them, think they are so simple but great fun.

We also got him a little kit to make a mosaic picture of a car. Something creative that he can sit quietly and do with us one time, maybe during the school holidays when Alex will be at daycare.

The day itself has been glorious. So very different to the day he was born. The sun has been shining since we left the house this morning, it was grey and cloudy and blowing a gail when he was born!

So we have spent much of it outside, running around, meeting daddy for lunch in the park and as always, getting the washing done.

Sadly when we took the scooter out of the box this morning the brake was broken, so our first job of the day after taking daddy to work, was to go and replace the scooter. Turns out there was a fault with that type and so we ended up buying one that cost more than the original one, but at least it works.

I haven't got too sentimental over this day, as he was born at 01.30am so all my sentimental time was yesterday as I watched the clock and remembered what I was doing this time 5 years ago!

He is already and raring to go for school on Monday, so the day maybe very easy as I get the feeling we will not be allowed to stay at school with him for more than 5 minutes before he kicks us out and tells us to 'go away'

Wedding Proposal

As you all know by now, I am getting married in 2 weeks time.
Steve and I got engaged back in March, and it kinda has a fun story to it.

My cousin Kerry, who is going to be my bridesmaid, got married herself last November. The boys were ring bearers at the ceremony and looked so cute in their little tuxedos.
At the reception in the evening, I caught Steve talking to my dad, nothing too strange here, as they do get on really well and dad was just back in the country for a couple of days.
They both said something to me as I passed them and then they told me to go away as they were talking.
This struck me as a little odd, but I didn’t dwell on it further.

Later on in the evening, my dad, now with a few drinks in him, came and sat down next to Steve, across the table from me and proceeded to say...

'Tomorrow would be a good day my son'

To which Steve quietly replied

'I was hoping to do it in a couple of weeks time with a ring!'

Now at the time I am not sure if they realised that I was there and that however quietly they were whispering, I could still hear them!
Later on I even saw Steve talking to my mother, so I knew he was doing the rounds of the family.

You see I had always said that when it ever came to the time when he wanted to propose to me, and he had to propose to me as I was never asking him, read about that here, I wanted him to do the right nice thing and ask my dad first, knew my dad would be quite chuffed at that happening.

So I let it go and moved it to the back burner and got on with the weekend.
The next day just happened to be my birthday, so the day was a little long with me wondering if at anytime Steve might ask me.
My cousin went on her honeymoon / OE Holiday for 8 weeks and at the airport I told her what I had overheard, mainly because I thought that by the time she returned I would be engaged.

The following week I was looking at some rings and necklaces in a catalogue and Steve asked me if I had seen anything I liked? I knew of course why he was asking me, but he was not aware that I knew.
I told mum that I knew what he was asking and she told me to be quiet and not ruin it for him, which I would never have done.
I told her that I would therefore be getting married in 2009 when they returned from Dubai, but she was pretty adamant that I was going to be getting married in 2008.
Turned out that Steve and Dad had even planned when I was going to get married because Steve and I were planning on going to Dubai to see mum and dad and they had decided between them that we would turn the holiday into our honeymoon.

The following week, Steve and I passed through our 8 year anniversary of getting together and still nothing happened.
Then the days that it could have happened on just kept flying past:
Christmas Day
Boxing Day – his birthday
New Years
Valentines Day
Even Feb 29 came along, in fact the day before he actually asked me. Not that I would have ever asked him.

At Christmas time my Uncle took me on a turn about the garden, whilst at a BBQ and proceeded to ask what was happening? Turns out my dad had let it slip to his big brother. So I reassured him that nothing had happened and that he would know when I knew.
That same day my Sister in Law Claire asked when Steve was ever going to marry me, to which I then told her about Kerry’s wedding and everything to date. She said she knew all that and that in fact so did just about all the family members in New Zealand.
So for the next 10 weeks just about all my family knew that sometime, when he got round to it, Steve was going to propose to me.

In fact the only person who didn’t seem to know that Steve was going to propose to me was STEVE!

Some 14 weeks after I had heard him talking to my dad, I discovered a receipt in his pocket for a large sum of money at Diamond & Time, Jewelers.
I do the laundry in the house so I do empty pockets before I wash things!
So then I knew that finally after nearly 15 weeks of agony maybe he was going to ask me to marry him!
On the Tuesday before, he casually asked if I could get a sitter for the next Saturday so we could maybe go out for a drink!
I not only got a sitter but on the Friday I got a manicure too!

And of course on Saturday 1st March he finally asked me and I finally got the ability to say yes to him.

Blog Post Count

As you may remember from the beginning of the year, I am trying to post 366 (leap year) posts this year.

I have even gone so far as to put together an Excel spreadsheet with all the dates on and then what number post I should be on on what day.

If you look at my Blog Archive on the right hand side you will see that for 2008 I have posted 267 posts so far.

That is not bad going considering #267 actually equates to Sept 23!

So I am actually about 20 posts ahead of myself, which is great when I have such a busy couple of weeks ahead of me.

Means I can go to Tahiti and not have to worry if I don't get to add a few posts whilst there, although I will try to post something.

Maybe my challenge is not quite as difficult as I first thought it would be.

Labour!

This weekend just gone was Labour Day in the good ol US of A.

In honor of Labour Day, Rocks in my Dryer put together a rather different meme, it's about........well, labour. And not the kind you get a day off for, either.

How long were your labors?
Ben - 7 1/2 hours, although was having twinges all day for about 9 hours.
Alex - 7 hours

How did you know you were in labor?
Ben - I didn't! Until the contractions were about 4 minutes apart and then I believed it!
Alex - started getting niggles and knew what to look out for as this was #2

Where did you deliver?
Ben - private birthing unit, although had to transfer to hospital 30 minutes after birth due to retained placenta
Alex - hospital due to 50/50 chance of needing an op again, which I did do.

Drugs?
No, although I took 2 paracetamol about 7 hours before Ben was born. Not sure what this was going to touch!!??

With Alex I talked myself out of any drugs during the labour, as I knew the reason why I couldn't have any of them. You know like, contractions too short and fast (gas & air), too close to delivery (pethidine) and no way (epidural)

C-section?
Nope,

Who delivered?
Midwife for both, although different ones as my first one had moved city's by the time I was pregnant with Alex.
Both were delivered on the floor as I was sqwatting next to the bed. 2nd midwife didn't like this so much and kept encouraging me to get on the bed, which I didn't.

How many weeks pregnant?
Ben - 38 .2 weeks
Alex - 39.1 weeks

Would you do it all again?
Oh yes, in a heart beat.
I loved my delivery with Alex.
Just the pregnancies that don't agree with me or Steve!
Unfortunately we discovered the source of the problem to getting them and fixed the problem!

Have a great week.

Breasts

Just like Diabetes, Breast Cancer plays a big roll in this family.

My mum had breast cancer 23 years ago and she is fighting fit.

So for precautionary measures I have an annual mammogram and check up with a specialist.

All $250 worth of check up....wow am I so glad I get it all back on insurance.

So for 10 minutes once a year, off I go and get squashed and flattened, poked and prodded all in the name of my own health.

But then hey, rather that then not being here for my 2 little guys.

Random Acts of Kindness

Today, here in New Zealand is Random Acts of Kindness Day, well that is what they said on the radio this morning.

I love random acts, I think they are just so great, makes you feel good for doing it and makes the other person feel good to have someone think about them.

I did a random act of kindness today whilst at swimming. Ben had finished his lesson and Alex was having his.

There was this little girl, probably about 2 1/2 yrs, sat in the playpen whilst her mum and baby sister were in the pool having a lesson.

Now this child sat there and sobbed. I mean really sobbed, talk about huge act and all that, she had mum just where she wanted her, at the end of her little pinky!

So the mum decided to get out of the pool and sit this child on a chair with her soft toys. She then went back into the water. So I decided to move and sit next to the little girl so mum didn't have to worry about her for the last 20 minutes of the lesson.

Mum waved to her at every oppotunity and she was very talkative.

She interacted with Ben and became quite relaxed and happy. Mum saw all this and carried on with her lesson.

Ben and the little girl even wanted to get in the playpen before the end and so I lifted them both in and they played together so nicely.

When the lesson was finished I went and got Alex dressed and then he wanted to play in the playpen, so I stood and let them all play together.

The mum then came and got her 2 children out of the playpen, looked at me with a funny look and then just walked off.

Now I wasn't expecting any huge praise or anything, but an acknowledgement of some small amount would have been so nice.

I didn't do a random act to get any praise or thanks, but I felt so snubbed.

But the day was not all lost, because we had to go downtown after swimming to pay some bonds for the venues we are hiring for the wedding.

When I had done this the boys and I had some other little errands to run.

Unfortunately they took longer than expected and so we stopped to get some lunch. When I had been served I then had to master a tray of food, with the puschair and Ben walking.

For 2 seconds I thought 'oh yea, like how will this happen' I was just about to get Ben to push the pushchair when this lady appeared and asked if I needed a hand.

Said she had heard on the radio today about helping people today and so she was helping me.

Ya ho, there is a kind world out there, it does go round in circles when you least expect it.

So go on, do a random act of kindness and make someone else smile today.

Spring

Today is officially the first day of spring in New Zealand

And isn't spring going to be busy for us......

7 days till Ben starts school

9 days till Grandma gets here from Dubai

16 days till Grandad gets here from Dubai

19 days until our wedding

21 days until our honeymoon

To name just a few of the things happening to our family in the next month.

Happy Spring to you all.....

Benjamin

For those that have been following, then you will know that my big boy is about to turn 5 and start school.
So I thought I would let you know a little more about him…….

1. When he was born he looked like a very old man
2. Almost like he had been here before…!
3. He looked around as if to say ‘oh this place again!’
4. He takes after me rather than Steve
5. He is a fussy eater
6. If he likes something he likes it
7. If he doesn’t then don’t even bother
8. He is left handed
9. Has red hair
10. He is a Virgo
11. And apparently lives up to it
12. He knows how things should be
13. And woe betide anyone change it
14. He doesn’t like change
15. He doesn’t like sweet things
16. Although he likes Twix’s
17. His favorite ice cream is Vanilla and Chocolate
18. I sometimes think he might become a vegetarian
19. He loves chicken, rice and sauce
20. Especially Apricot Chicken
21. But he doesn’t like tomatoey Mince meals
22. When having Chilli, will eat everything but the meat
23. Same with Spaghetti Bolognese
24. Cheese makes him sick
25. Oh and so does Oyster sauce
26. He doesn’t like jelly, yoghurt, cake or potate chips
27. But will eat apples, bananas, oranges, kiwi fruit and mandarins until there are none left.
28. He is definitely a leader
29. He never forgets anything
30. And I mean anything, he will remind you about something that happened a year ago! And he would have been 3 ½ or 4 then!
31. He loves Hi 5
32. He knows lots of their songs
33. And the actions to the songs
34. He also likes the Wiggles, I can’t stand them!
35. He suddenly has this new thing about exercising
36. He enjoys it
37. He is mad on swimming
38. And seems to glide through the water with such ease
39. He has started to learn to write his letters and numbers
40. He can write his own name and his brothers
41. He loves answering the phone and will talk to the person on the line for ages
42. When he talks to Grandma he walks around the house showing her everything
43. Poor Grandma can’t see any of it on the phone but happily amuses him as she has a guided tour of the house, again!
44. He loves to help you with things
45. He loves singing
46. He will sing with me in the car to all the latest hits on the radio
47. And he even knows the words!
48. His favorite colour is Blue
49. And apparently he will be trying everything when he is a big boy of 5
50. Well that is the answer we get from him when he doesn’t want to do anything now
51. He is very caring of others

So that is our big man for now, I know he will change a lot during the rest of this year as he starts his big journey through school.

Wedding

3 weeks to go until our wedding

Coming Home

My parents have been living and working out in Dubai for the last 2 years on and off, well mum has been there on and off, Dad has been there most of the time.

They have had a ball from reading her blog and I know it was amazing for them to have come full circle in 30 years from living out in Kuwait in 1977 to now living in Dubai in 2007.

But they informed me last night that the time is up.

When they come home for my wedding in 2/3 weeks time they won't be going back afterwards.

The company has said thank you very much, you can go home now.

They have had a great time, but they do have 4 gorgeous grandsons here in New Zealand who are growing up very fast and they are missing it out on all they are doing.

New Zealand Rally 2008

When I was a little girl, we lived in the Middle East, Kuwait and Jordan to be exact.

I was 7 when we moved to Kuwait and we stayed there for 4 yrs.

I have lots of wonderful memories and experiences to recall that not many can say they have had in their life time.

One of these such things was Rallying. Yep that is right, fast cars and lots of man power.

My dad co-drove for Datsun at one stage.

I remember going out into the desert in the middle of the night just to see them for 5 minutes as they came in off of a stage and got ready to go out on the next stage.

I also remember the driver of the car (David), who just happened to be a pilot, deciding that as they hit a sand dune then he would see if the car would fly!

You guessed it, it did sort of, although the front axsel didn't quite enjoy the flight as much as everyone else and they came limping in from the stage with the front wheels at a 45 degree angle, but the clever service guys had it all sorted and changed within 15 minutes!

Now you don't get service like that in an average garage!

My father also travelled to other countries within the middle east to partake of these crazy races. Dubai, Bahrain etc.

Now don't get me wrong, this was just a hobbie, not a job, although I am sure he would have loved to have done this more. It was in his blood as his father had also been involved with the rallies in England, although my aunty (dad's sister) told me a few months ago that she remembers helping her dad set stages when she was little, so we are talking many years ago.

Me, well I remember the rallies in the middle east and I also remember marshalling for the British Rally one year in Nottingham, I must have been about 20 yrs old. Getting out to the stage at 4am and standing in the freezing cold dark, whilst these mean fast cars came hurtling round a bend heading straight for you before turning in the other direction. I loved it.

I guess to an extent I am glad I don't have little girls, because I have come to the conclusion that I am not your average feminine young lady, I like too many boys sports, although I would attend these sports wearing pink, just to make a statement.

Anyway, The New Zealand Repco Rally 2008 is in Hamilton this weekend. Sadly no we are not going out to watch any of it, although my SIL and her boys are tomorrow.

But last night we did hang around town watching the official start parade.

Ben was interested in seeing the rally cars, so was I, but Alex spent the whole time wanting to go home. Not sure what Steve wanted to do, although I don't think he had much choice in what he did.

We had lots of fun, and I am sure as the boys get bigger we will eventually head out to the stages further around the Waikato area.

We do have a friend (Greg) that is part of the Targa New Zealand Rally, a rally for the average New Zealander and we have got to see him in action once this year. We will aim to catch up with him more over the next year if we can, although he will be back driving in Rotorua next May/June so we will be there to cheer him on. Picture below shows you him and his car (he is guy on left) INTGRR a Honda Prelude

Birthday and School

1 week to go

We are going to have some visits with the school this week coming.

Going to go and spend some time in a classroom so Ben can see what happens, where to go etc

Nice for him to know what he has to do in the mornings when he arrives at school.

Also we will spend an afternoon there as well so he can see what happens at the end of the day too.

He never forgets anything, so going and seeing both routines once will be fine for him to know some of what is going on.

His school bag is all packed, on it's new hook in his bedroom, his decision not ours!, and ready to go. His clothes are just waiting for name tags so we can work some what towards not loosing his uniform.

Now we just have to wait for the day to arrive!

Low or No Sugar

As you are aware Steve is a Type 1 Diabetic.

Has been for many years now, like 23 odd or so.

Yes it has its moments, but nothing too over powering to our life.

Food is food and I haven't been totally radical and banned sugar completely, I mean there are sometimes when we need sugar in the house, and believe me when we need it we need it, can't make the excuse of 'hang on, just nip to the dairy and get some!' when Steve is feeling low in blood sugar and needs some pick up.

Ok we don't posess a sugar bowl and unfortunately anyone who comes to visit and wants sugar in their coffee, well they have to scoop it straight out of the 1L Tupperware container that holds the castor sugar! Castor sugar because I do use sugar in cooking and this works better than granulated sugar.

We do however have diet products in the house, again not because we are all diet crazed, but because low calorie or no sugar products are to a certain point benificial to Steve.

Only problem we have is Alex. He likes Steve's jam.

Now I am not a person who spreads jam on bread or toast thick enough so you leave teeth marks! I have a thin layer, enough to get the flavour but not ruin the toast.

Now I could go on about people's preferences on toast but that can be another post for another day!

I am happy to let Alex have some of the jam occassionally, Steve is not.

As he is not constantly eating products filled with sweetners and is getting adequate calorie, vitamin and nutrient intake as required for his little growing body then I have no problems.

I came across this website that mentioned the harm of Aspartame in children. This is what they said:

Studies have documented that aspartame is safe for use by children. However, children need calories to achieve proper growth and development. Thus, parents should supervise their children’s diet to avoid dietary excesses or nutritional deficiencies.

Exactly what I just said, we are not using them as a dietary supplement, we are just letting him have jam on toast occassionally and a mouthful of Pepsi Max from our glass.

Gardens

On Sunday, in the pouring rain, we went to the gardens with the boys as they were getting cabin fever!

We went and checked out the greenhouse, see what was in bloom and how things are looking. Especially as the wedding is there in 4 weeks.

The greenhouse is next to the Camellia Garden within the gardens and it was amazing.

I have never seen so much colour in such a small area.

The path to get to the greenhouse goes straight through the middle of the camellia garden. Not sure if after all the battering of wind and rain the flowers have received lately whether the colour will all still be there when I have to walk through in 4 weeks.

It was obvious that they don't like being hammered with rain!

If you then walk down the big hill from the greenhouse to the centre of the gardens, you have to cross the Rhododendron Lawn and yes it is named that for obvious reasons.

The mass of colour around the lawn was again amazing, trees filled with full dark colour everywhere you looked.

It was fun to see the gardens with so much colour yet on such a grey wet day.

Lets hope there might still be some of the amazing colour in 4 weeks time!

Sunshine

Isn't it amazing what a little sunshine can do for everyones spirits after so much winter cloud and rain!

The radio told us yesterday that, hopefully, this weekend will be dry.

The first dry one in 13 weeks!

Yes, we have been having the odd nice day during the weeks of winter, but come the weekend and all it can do is rain!

Today is a beautiful sunny day, with the odd cloud and the whole step of the city seems to be brighter and chirpier.

I love the effect the sun can have on people's moods.

With spring officially only a couple of days away, hopefully soon we will start to have some more days like today.

Olypmics

So the 2008 Olympic Games has come to a close.

204 Countries competed

192 were UN recognised Countries, only Brunei was not represented as they failed to have any athletes attend.

302 Gold medals were awarded

3 Gold medals went to New Zealand

19 Countries won just 1 Gold Medal - places like Iran, Latvia, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Azerbaijan

The next Olympics will be held in London, Great Britain in 2012

The quest for the 2016 Games is now being fought out between Chicago, Madrid, Rio and Tokyo.

I am hoping for either Rio or Madrid

Ben would like to go to the Olympics to watch one time, wouldn't we all, so maybe we could have this as our family goal for 8 years time, to go to the Olympics wherever they get held. I could do Chicago, Madrid or Rio.

Hope you found something fun to watch over the last 16 days.

Only 2 years until the Winter Olympics, my favourite, to be held in Vancouver, Canada between Feb 12 - 28 2010

Wedding

4 weeks to go

Got the licence the other day, so slightly all official now, we have until Nov 11 to get married, why we would want to wait till then I don't know, but hey at least it covers all eventualities.

The favours we wanted have arrived, so one thing down. I have been to the Party Hire place and sorted out a fridge to hire for the weekend of the wedding, as we have so many people around the house during that time I decided that we needed extra space for food and drink etc so a nice big fridge will sit in the garage for a couple of days. Also ordered the table runners for the venue and extra glasses for the house over the weekend along with napkins and plates. Do have 40 odd people coming here on the Sunday for Brunch so will be very useful.

Received the travel itinery and tickets from the travel agent the other day for the honeymoon in Tahiti. Got a travel voucher for just about every breath we take whilst there from the size of the folder with it all in. At least everything is paid for and taken care of before we get there so will be a lot more relaxed knowing we are not worried about how to pay for a certain part of the journey or breakfast etc. I can't wait!

Sickness

So Alex has cheered up a little since last week.

Still very grouchy at times, but slowly eating more.


Ben has a nasty cough and a cold, but is not too bad within himself.



ME - well I now have a stinking cold, ache and feel like crap, but hey isn't that motherhood for you?


After being coughed, sneezed and spluttered on for a week what can I expect but to have gotten sick myself.
I am jsut waiting for Steve to get sick this weekend coming!

Only saving grace is that it has all happened now and not in 4 weeks time!

Wedding Dress

Remember to check back over the weekend when I will try to get a few pictures of the dress in progress up just for the weekend

for you all to see........

Radio

Yesterday I was just going into the kitchen to start cooking dinner when I heard the annoucer on the radio mention something about an opinion poll that had just been done on Boy Bands.

Now I listen to Classic Hits, a good station that playes hits from the 70's, 80's 90's and today.

Jason was going on about how this poll had just come out and that the number 1 Boy Band of all time was apparently "Take That"

He was asking if you agreed to this and if not who would you have voted for?

Got out my phone and text "Westlife. Playing one of their songs at my wedding next month"

About 5 minutes after sending the text, my phone goes and would you believe it is Jason from Classic Hits. Asks me a few questions, gets me to say a few things back to him and then says congrats on the wedding and good luck.

So I carried on sorting dinner but now with the radion turned up even more because I knew that when he came back on and discussed the Boy Band section I would be on the radio.

It was about 15 minutes later and suddenly he is talking about them and then went to the calls he had received about them.

And yes there was my call. Such fun.

BUT

To then have my mobile go off with a text about 2 seconds after my section had played was a little scary.

The text was from a friend of mine Vanessa which said "Westlife! I'm not coming then!"

I mean what was the chances of anyone I know hearing me on the radio, let alone Vanessa of all people!

So I quickly called her, laughing the whole time, apparently she had just got in her car and on came the radio and there I was.

As she said "You never know who will be listening!?"

Gave us both a great end to the day :)