Sunflowers

As you may have remembered from here, we are having a sunflower growing competition in our family.

Man are they growing!!

Here is a picture of how they are looking at present.....

man are they getting tall?

I am sure they keep growing just in the time we are away during the day for work and school cause they always seem taller when we get home.

Steve and Ben seem to be steaming away with the tallest at present

sure Steve's are getting taller because of the down pipe?

Ben's on the R of pole, mine on L, pretty close in size

Alex is a little miffed that his are not racing behind, but I keep assuring him that that means his are saving their energy for making the biggest flower head and that that prize is the best one to win at the end of the day (get to choose where to have dinner)

A Small Problem

Before we start this post, I must tell you that the only way I got these pictures on here was by placing them on a USB stick and then using the laptop rather than my PC! How is that for go figure? and simple? Although still haven't figures out as to why my PC will not load pictures on days with an 'A' in them??

Many weeks ago we had a small problem with our cat...she wanted to constantly sit outside the door that lead into our roof space!

We could hear something and Steve guessed that we maybe had a bird making their way into the roof. This was not something that we had ever actually confirmed, but the cat was still happy to sit outside the door when ever she had the chance.

However not long ago we started to hear a few little chirps and guessed that yes in deed we had a bird nest in the roof and the eggs had obviously hatched!

This has driven the cat even madder than she already is!

Steve mentioned it at dinner the other evening, how to deal with the babies in the roof?

1. Leave well alone and let the bird finish with the nest and then move it and block up the holes?
2. Go in and move the nest straight away, block up the hole and live with the consequences?

One of the biggest things was whether we would be able to find the nest? Would we have to empty out half the stuff in the roof to gain access to the nest? Would we be able to find it easily?

Today Steve went into the roof to find out what was there?

He came downstairs and told me he had something to show me, that not to worry we would have no worries finding the nest?

On going into the roof space and putting my head round the little door leading in, this is what we found....

This nest is just under 1m tall

This one bird had created this nest for her babies, or baby as there was only 1 in there.

We did however find an egg on the floor but on further inspection have decided that we think it got knocked out long ago.

Alex took the egg to school the other day for show and tell.

Now we are well aware of how she got into the roof. This next picture shows you the little gap we have just under the eaves by the beams of the roof.

small gap by beam of roof

What gets me though is that when you look at the roof line at the back of the house....someone has actually blocked the same areas there!

nice blocked gap by beam of roof

So my question would then be....well why not do all of them to prevent it happening at all?

Tonight Steve has been in the roof and sadly the nest is empty. We can not find any sign of the baby bird but feel that it looked too young to be ready to fly away so soon. Maybe we disturbed something by opening the door into the area etc?

So now we have a clean up to do. Feel we are going to need a black bag to get all that nest out of the roof and then sometime during the summer we will have to organise little planks of wood to be nailed over the holes, just like the back of the roof has, so the birds are unable to get into there again next year.

Trouble Again

Once again I have several posts to show you but once again they will only work with pictures.
BUT once again I am unable to load pictures onto the post.

Have I mentioned before at all that I hate this new picture loading device that blogger have changed to?
I just don't seem to get the pictures to load.
Today I can get them to load to the sub screen but not actually load onto the post!

What is the point?

Disaster

Not sure if any of my friends overseas are aware that sadly over a week ago New Zealand was hit with a terrible mining disaster!
29 guys sadly lost their lives when there was an explosion in the coal mine they had not long started their shift in.
At the time it was extremely dangerous to go in and attempt to rescue them and sadly as the days wore on, it became apparent that it was even worse than they originally thought.
Unfortunately 5 days after the first explosion there was a 2nd explosion.
It was then deemed that New Zealand had a recovery on their hands not a rescue.

Yesterday there was yet another explosion.

They are unsure as to when the recovery attempt will start, it may sadly be many weeks before they are able to deem the mine safe enough for rescue teams to go in the mine.

At present, as is company rules, all 29 miner's tags are still hanging on the security board at the entrance of the mine, and as is rightly so, I feel these tags will stay there until the miners are safely brought to the surface.
It goes to show that the miners are still underground and that is what those tags mean during working times.

I hope that when the miners are safely recovered, someone will kindly take the tags down to show they are no longer underground.

I remember many years ago, when 2 Australian miners got trapped underground. The first thing they both did on successfully returning to the surface, was to remove their tags from the board to show their shift had ended and that they were no longer underground.
It was a poiniant moment watching them remove the tags, as it symbolised so much.

My heart goes out to all the families who have been affected by this sad disaster. I fear they will not have closure very quickly and I hope they manage to get through the many weeks ahead until closure comes to them.

Start of The Challenges

Well a week has almost passed and I have made a start on my challenges.

I of course completed Challenge 1 first, as per the instructions that I had set, and so I ahve brought my notebook to use for the time. In fact I brought 2 notebooks, 1 to be used as a jotting place for things to do with each challenge, notes to self, points to remember etc.
The 2nd one is the official book that will get nicely written and have pictures pasted into to use as my journal of my challenge.

I have also made a start on several other challenges, as some of them will take time to complete.
Please refer here for the complete list of challenges.

Challenge 43 - we have a vegetable garden planted and when there is something to use I will complete this challenge early next year

Challenge 45 - I have made a start on my new collection and have decided that I will start collecting snowmen. It is the right time of year to commence this challenge as of course all the Christmas decorations are now readily available in the stores. I will post a picture when I have the 1st item of my collection.

Challenge 63 - I have started to read through some of the cook books in the cupboard to see which would be enjoyable to use. I am even considering using the cook book Alex got for his birthday this year and maybe extending the challenge a little to add that him and I will attempt all the recipes?

Challenge 71 - am constantly thinking about what I could use to develop the recipe, although I have a dip (Chick Peas with Indian Spices) that I buy from a store that I love and am maybe going to see if I can reproduce it at home.

Challenge 73 - have been thinking back over my wonderful adventerous 40 years and jotting down places I have enjoyed visiting and thinking about if I would like to take the boys there one day.

So there is my start for now, not bad going for the first week.

True Friends

A true friend doesn't care when you're broke, being a bitch, what you weigh,
if your house is a mess, what you drive, about your past, or if your family is filled with crazy people.
Your conversations pick up where they left off, even if they have been months apart.
They love ......you.........for who you are.

My Challenges

As promised my 'Challenge' page is now up and running.

Yes today is my 40th Birthday and so my 100 challenges have begun

Click over here to find out all about what I have set myself to achieve or just click on the 'challenge' page at the top of my blog.

Should make for an interesting first year of being in my 40's

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to meeee,

Happy Birthday to me......

Little White Boy

Ben, at the beginning of the year, came home from school and annouced that he was joining Kapa Haka.
Kapa Haka is a Traditional Maori Dance Group, usually performed by Maori.

He is loving it and is well into it, apart from one little problem.............

Spot the little white boy!

Emotions

Today my emotions ran a muck!
And it wasn't my family that caused it either!
It was a patient at work that hit me the most and proved after all that nurses are human and do get affected by what is going on around them.

I don't know what it was about this case but something just hit me and wouldn't let go and that sent my emotions into over drive big time.

I don't often get affected by patient's to the extent that it stays with me but today was one of those ones that does.

Very lucky that Steve works in the hospital as well so I was able to go find him and get the big hug I desperately needed at the time

Life Lessons and Celebrating

This is my 1000 post, yea to me for getting this far. It has taken me 5 years to get here but the first 2 years I really didn't blog much at all, 6 or 7 post a year, so maybe it will only take me 3 years to get to 2000?

This was sent to me by email, am sure I have seen it before, but everytime I read it at least 1 or 2 of the points ring home some truth to me and make me realise that sometimes I really am sweating the bad stuff and ignoring the good.

GOOD ADVICE Written by a 90 year old

This is something we should all read at least once a week!!!!!
Make sure you read to the end!!!!!!

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland ,
Ohio .

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me...
It is the most requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come...

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Hope this makes you think about soemthing in your life and makes you realise that it is not all bad!

Zoo

When we lived in Auckland, we use to visit the zoo all the time.
They had wonderful annual passes available.
At the time we were able to get 2 adult passes because the kids got in free.
Once they turned 5 then we would have got a kids pass and then become the accompanying adult that got in free.
All in all it always worked out a very decent thing to buy for the year and it got well used.

When we moved to Hamilton we checked out the zoo here! What a disappointment, they didn't do annual passes, just Friends of the Zoo, which you had to pay to be and this only gave you half price when ever you visited, so you had to have the money to be able to go.
Consequently we have not used the zoo at all whilst living here.

However I have just read on Facebook (and checked out on their website) that they have just introduced their  'New' annual pass to the zoo.
They now have on sale annual passes at a very reasonable price that allows you to go as often as you want for the whole year. Yea, we will definitely be looking at getting one of those.

When you have nothing else to do, it is always great to take the kids to the zoo. For the price of the Family Pass we would have to visit 3 times in the year to get our monies worth but that would be easy to do.
The amount of times we use to load the pushchair with drink bottles and a packed lunch and spend an afternoon at the zoo, was great.

Think we might just be visiting Hamilton Zoo much more next year

Deadly Day on Waikato Roads

That is the title on one of the Google homepage news links.
The first paragraph went like this:

"Three people were killed and six injured in three separate crashes within 7 hours on Waikato roads."

Having heard of 2 of the accidents on the news I thought I would have a quick read to see about the 3rd.

1. Car v truck on a bend
2. Police car v car trying to escape them
3. Car v tanker

The only thing that suddenly stood out for me was this:

1. Driver of the car was 15yrs old
2. Driver of the car that crashed in to Police was ....15yrs old
3. Driver of the car was 17yrs old

Anyone else see a common theme in this story.......yea me too, the drivers were all young. The 15yr old female they say was driving too fast and didn't handle the car or road correctly. She also had a car full of other teenager passengers
The 15yr old male that ran into police was in a car packed with other youths and they were trying to escape the Police.
The 3rd driver I don't know anything about, just that he was young too.

Sadly it wasn't a good day on the roads for young drivers yesterday in the Waikato area

The 40th Challenge Preperation

The idea for the '40th Challenge' I got from someone else, isn't that where all good ideas come from?

I was reading a blog one time and this lady was talking about how she set herself somethings to achieve in the first year of being 40.
Hers were along the lines of:

1. Take a hot air balloon ride
2. Get a facial
3. Try yoga

Not quite the sort of thing I wanted to do as most of her stuff cost a lot of money, I wanted something that would maybe make me, ok on a very small scale, a better person. Maybe make me more aware of others etc, something that I didn't mind spending some money on but was not going to cost me a fortune.

Anyway, I was reading another blog I follow and she mentioned a friend who had sent her something as part of a challenge she was trying to complete.
So being the nosey person I am, I skipped on over to her blog and checked it all out.
I wasn't 100% sure to begin with, but after some thinking I decided I could adapt a little.

I got in touch with the person doing the challenge to enquire as to where she got the idea from?
She said that a friend and herself had sort of copied something they had seen and like me adapted it slightly and tweaked it some more and hey presto ended up with what they had.

So for the last couple of days I have been doing just that. I have been reading through and adapting, without making it too easy, so that I have something that has some easy parts and some rather hard thinking parts.

I have enjoyed tweaking it so much that I am now very eager to start, although I am not going to start until my birthday (11 days by the way) but I have already got plans in my head for some of the parts so hopefully will start with a big bang and hope I see it through.

I will, when I put the challenge up on the blog, talk about where I got it from and then you can skip on over, when you are free and see how she has got on throughout 2010 which has been her timeframe for the challenge.

Maybe, you might be inspired to set yourself one at sometime.

Catch you soon

Upcoming Birthday

I have a rather significant birthday coming up in a few weeks time. Sadly not as young as 30 but not as old as 50, so you work it out!

Anyway, apart from wanting to totally change my career and try and spend more time doing crafts etc I wanted something to try and do as a little challenge as I turn this momentous age??

But what, is the big question?

Well on someones blog the other day I came across the very thing. Something that will take me at least a year to complete, something that has no set timeframes and can be achieved in any order, no set rules, just something to work towards.

I will let you in on the challenge in a few weeks time (2 1/2 weeks actually) because hopefully it will be something I can blog about as I achieve it.

Sunflower Competition

We have had the sunflower seeds planted for about 3 weeks now and we have had some results already.


Green shoots at the back are my seeds through, lots of them!

My seeds won the first step of the competition, which was to have the first shoot through, although Steve says that mine came through first because I didn't plant them very deep!
He thinks his will be the tallest because he says he planted them deeper and so they will be stronger?
We will see.

Garden Wedding

Our back garden seems to have been turned into a something out of a wedding!

The neighbours have this awesome tree in their garden and it is full of blossom.

And with the wind we have swirling around today, there is confetti petals floating all over the place.

In the vegetable patch

All in the lawn

All we need know is the bride and groom!

Library Books

I like to read, although I am quite fussy about what type of book I read, it usually has to be a romance novel or family saga, unfortunately the 'Classics' have still not got into me just yet.

We use the local library all the time, well at least I do, seeing as I always take out at least 4 books when ever we go there. Steve usually takes 1 or 2 because he only reads at night just before going to sleep.
Plus we have also made sure that the boys are into reading, well we hope we have instilled into them the joy of books, they love having a story read each night and are happy to look at books before going to sleep, so hopefully when it comes to being able to totally read for themselves they will discover the full joy of totally immersing oneself in a book and the wonders that they can hold.

If I find an author I enjoy reading then I will try to read all books that are written. So to help me with this I have a notebook by my bed. I have alphabetised the book and as I read a book by an author then I write down under the correct letter who the author was and what the book was.
The idea being that I should really take this notebook with me when ever we go to the library and then if I find a book I am interested in I can look to see if I have read the book.

I also write down in there under the author any other book they have written, so if I am looking for a book to read I can search for a particular book as well. When I have read a book, then I will tick it off in my notebook. Sometimes I have even marked next to it if it was a really bad book so I know never to read that one again!
I have had this system going for nearly 13 years now and it is really quite useful.
My main author's I seem to read all of are:

• Danielle Steel
• Debbie Macomber
• LaVryle Spencer (although she is not writing anymore)
• Barbara Delinsky

As you can see, nothing really heavy, just your typical family saga romance.

There are several libraries around Hamilton, all branches of the main one downtown. However there are 4 that are no more than 15 mins away from us.
They have an awesome internet system as well so I am able to search for a book online at home and reserve if I want for $1.50. I can then nominate which branch I wish to collect from. I have also been known to see a book I want to borrow online and actually drive to that branch to collect it, usually lumping it in with an errand I have to run on that side of town.
So I would say we are really utilising our local library well at the moment and they in turn are being very good for our family.

Logical Mind with an Unlogical Heart

Alex has been toilet trained since just after he turned 3. He just decided one day that he was no longer wearing nappies during the day!
After 2 weeks we were trained (took 9 months with Ben!)

Unfortunately we have had a small problem with Alex in that he is unable to get a through a whole day without being wet. Now we are not talking about wetting himself instead of going to the toilet, we are talking about dribbling, so that he is wet at some stage in the day and sadly it is not enough for him to notice and so therefore he wanders around in damp undies (which yes, do smell by the end of the day!)

We have taken him to a Urologist back in March of this year to get checked out, just in case he needed anything doing. Nothing apart from learning so new little tricks when peeing.
On and off we have been toddling along since then. We have had some good monents and some not so good moments.
Unfortunately it all comes down to the fact that we now have another appointment with the Urologist in November.

I have a feeling he might suggest that we give Alex a circumcision.
My mind knows that this is the most logical thing to do, with being a nurse I have seen this procedure done many times, so know all about it.
Unfortunately my heart is telling me different things and the thought of having to take him into a theatre and watch him go to sleep and then leave him makes the muscles around my heart ache at the thought of it.

Now the whole stupid thing about this is that I am a theatre nurse, have been for 15 years. I have watched countless operations over the years, taken many parents away from their children once they are asleep, comforting them as we walk down the corridor, reassuring them that all will be well and that they will be back with them soon.
I now how it all works, what happens, where he will be, who will be with him, the whole works but it does not seem to make any difference!

Not long after I started working in theatres, I remember talking to my mum and telling her how I wondered why some of these parents who had knowledge about the whole procedure got so upset when their child had an anaesthetic?
She said until I was a parent I would never understand the heart ache involved even when you know it is totally for the better.

Well I am now beginning to get a better idea of exactly what those parents were going through when I was a young innocent nurse many years ago.

New Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken a few weeks ago.
well the boys had some pictures taken for part of a photo competition, but I realised that we didn't have any of just me and my boys, so I jumped in a few of the shots.

These are the proofs of the ones I have choosen, sadly they are not the greatest pictures as I scanned them from the printouts I was given, but you get the idea.

Growing in Odd Places

We have a little bit down the side of our garage that is really useless.

The space down there is not big, it needs a new fence put up to seperate us from the driveway of the units next door.

The hedge only goes along so far before you come to nothing. There was a peach tree tucked back there but Steve had to attack it last year as it was rotten.

We would be able to walk along there if we fixed eveything up but of course the usual thing comes into play....money, plus also the fact that if we started on that side of the garage then we would have to extend the fence all the way round the back as well and probably sort out the fence down the side of the driveway so it was all done in one go not several attempts!

So you can guess that it is not getting done anytime soon!

However, we do have weeds etc growing along there and that is fine.

Apart from the weeds are now trying to find somewhere else to grow and have decided to come through the gaps at the bottom of the garage wall.

No worries about that because then you manage to get cute picture like this....

The ivy looked so cute growing up the rake handle