Snail Mail

Snail mail what ever is she on about, I can hear you thinking?
Do we really remember what this is? Because I was seriously thinking this art had disappeared, poff vanished!

Do any of you ever really send any snail mail anymore? Come on now be honest, when was the last time you visited a mail box in the street to send something to someone? Ok so I can now hear some of you asking if the boxes are still on the side of the street? And I will sadly grace your question with a full answer of 'Yes' they are still there somewhere if you know the right places to look!

Now by snail mail I am not just leaning towards bills and cheques for paying someone, I mean fully fledged snail mail to a friend or relative, telling them about your family, an exciting thing that just happened or even god forbid a birthday card, welcome baby card or even if anyone remebers them a get well soon card.

Go check you address book now, ok yes the one on your computer, do you actually have address's for all the important people in your life? Do you even have the postcode for that address? Most postal services are pushing for postcodes nowadays!

Did you, big step here now folks, even send any Christmas Cards this year?

I can admit to sending out Christmas Cards and no I don't do it just to see how many I receive back but I was quite shocked at only receiving 3 this last Christmas! Have people just stopped communicating?

I am currently taking part in Blogtoberfest, where you blog 31 times in 31 days throughout October, in other words 1 a day for the whole month.

Anyone who signs up for this at Tinniegirl's Place can go and check out the blogs of others taking part too.

So this morning I have sat in bed and whiled away my time visiting blogs from all over the world.

One I visited was Staring at the Sea and she had a post on there about having just taken part in a Mail Art Exchange. Along the lines of decorating a card and envelope and sending it to someone who you have been given the address of. Like a swap I guess.

However she enjoyed this project so much that when she discovered this next project she thought 'why not?'

It is a project where, starting today Oct 9, you plan to send 1 piece of snail mail each week for a year. To find out more about it check out their Facebook Page or read more about it here.

You do not sign up to a list, you do not get given anyone special you have to send too, you just do this because you want to, because you want to send something to people you know, you want to try and remember to send birthday cards throughout one whole year.

If you are a creator then why not buy a bunch of blank postcards and decorate the front and send 1 to a friend or relative. Maybe you have some fun paper and can get creative making the envelope instead.

If you find a photo of someone and you think they would appreciate a copy then copy it and send it to them, via snail mail, not as an attachment!

See a poem you know someone would like, then print it out and send it to them telling them it made you think of them. Or even just put pen to paper and write something to someone...!

The mail man, he does still exsist, he still comes round to your house 5 or 6 days a week. Ok like mentioned previously, he may only drop off bills and fliers advertising things, but how much more fun it would be if there was something bright and colourful and personal in amongst those bills?

Also remember, you may have not been to a post office shop for a while but they too still exsist, they even still sell those stamp thingys that you require to send snail mail. they even have pretty ones with special pictures on occasionally to commemorate a special time or promote something special that is happening. Maybe you can try and send things with pretty stamps on rather than the boring generic everyday ones.

 When I was younger, ok who am I kidding here I still love it now, I loved receiving things that had interesting stamps on. Special ones that were only for that week or month.

So have fun with this, run with it, create more work for the post people. If you want someone to send something to, then leave me a message. Always happy to receive things, even if it is just a note saying "hope your day was good?" surrounded by an exoticly created envelope.

Have fun.

Family Fun

Back at the beginning of 2006, after I had returned to work after having Alex, I came across a website called Family Fun. It is a site and organisation that is run in part by Disney.

It is a website dedicated to everything to do with fun in the family.

• crafts
• recipes
• activities
• parenting ideas
• party ideas
• family evening activites
• printables - colouring pages, quiz, puzzles

There is always something that you know will work with your family.
They even have a magazine that is produced 10 times per year. They only produce 1 edition over July and August (summer holiday time) and again in December and January (Christmas holiday time).
It is happily delivered to New Zealand and is usually only about a week or 2 out. (I just received October's the other day) Although there are not many competitions that you can enter because sadly you do need to be an citizen of US to enter, but that is no worry. Also if there was a specially celebration holiday at the beginning of the month, you may find they had a great idea for an activity that sadly gets to you too late, but by checking out the website often you can see it on there first before receiving the magazine!

From reading that last section you have by now worked out that this is in fact an American publication. I haven't found anything I can't adapt yet and yes sadly the magazine for summer activities does arrive slap bang in the middle of our winter but I see that as giving me plenty of planning time for the summer months ahead.

Go check them out here and see if you can't find something that will work for your family.

A couple of months ago they celebrated 20 years of Family Fun by giving you a chart to collect the monthly Badges of Fun on.

Chart can be printed from website

These badges are available 1 per month and gives you 10 activites to complete throughout the year.
In June the badge was Backyard Fun where you had to do something outside with the family.

In July the badge was Preserve Family Memories where you had to find a way to remember

In August the badge was Hit The Road where you had to take a family trip together, whether to Grandmas or the supermarket!

In September the badge was Learn Something New where you had to do something as a family that was new to you all.

Now in October the badge is Family Night Fun where you have to do something fun with the family at night. Play outside, games night etc.

Without realising it we have managed to complete all of these and I haven't even told the family that we are doing it!
Maybe it is time to sit them down and let them know what we have achieved so far and make plans for how to achieve the others as they come up each month.

I love receiving my magazine and seeing what fun activities are suggested. There are awesome art creations as well but I have never ventured there but if you were a school teacher, kindy teacher or daycare person you may find some wonderful ideas on things to make with the kids etc.

In another post sometime I will write about what we have done to achieve each badge, if you start completing the badges, then let me know. Would love to see what you did.

Home Show

Every year at this time the Home Show comes to Hamilton.
They are always more elaborate than last year but I can't always say they are bigger, some years I have noticed they seem a little smaller with slightly less stall holders.

We never go with a particular item in mind, more often than not, we are just going to see. See what takes our fancy, see what people are suggesting is the new way of doing something, seeing what crazy new gadget is out that apparently we just can't live without.....not!

We do however like looking at the spa pools and dreaming of what it would be like to have one in the back garden.

We like to look at the new invented ways of having a sun shade in the garden, because maybe one day when we have our deck we might have a sun shade, although by the time we get round to it umbrellas will be back as the new in thing to have.

I love checking out the crazy selling speel the man goes through to get you to buy not just 1 but 2 steam mops, because we all have houses that are large enough to need 2 of the dam things.

We love looking at the next best thing in decorating, the thing that will help you do something and it will also 'save you time and money' yea right.
Any new cleaning product that works wonders on any surface and is still only made from 'baking soda' or 'vinegar'.
We dream of how crazy it would be to have new appliances in the kitchen that are all psychodelic pink or green because SMEG seems to think we all want weird colour appliances.

We are also happy to sample any and all new drinks, wines, cheeses and fudge anyone has to offer to try and tempt us to purchase they new product.

Generally we have found the Home Show to be a great evening out for the family, where we wander round viewing everything and then go home with absolutely nothing to show for it!

Homework!

Ben can get himself all in a tizz over his homework very easily.
Somedays it flows nicely whilst on others it is harder than turning the tap on.

However the other day he asked us what jobs didn't have paperwork?
Turns out he doesn't want to do any!
On further investigation, it turns out that his only understanding about paperwork is homework and that is what he doesn't want to do in a job....homework!

I had just finished my last essay for my degree and he felt this was paperwork for my job (it is not, as I am doing this totally seperate from anything to do with work) so we had to explain that in fact my essays are for my school not work, that they were my homework like he has.

We did go though some jobs and discuss what paperwork would be involved, he caught on pretty quickly that, hopefully, training in a job would give you all the information and skills you would need to complete any paperwork involved.

Funny the little things that bother them somedays.

Blog Name

What is in a blog name?
Not much I am sure but the owner of the blog may tell you otherwise!
How did you name your blog?

My mother is always stealing posts from my blog for hers, well when I actually remember to blog that is!, so I decided to steal an idea from hers. Fair is fair mum!

Anyway, her post was about how the name for your blog came about?
Why did you choose the name you did, why is the address what it is? Have you changed it since you started the blog all those years ago?

My blog is called 'Life Today' and it is exactly that, a blog about life today.
I think I chose my address with blogspot before having a title for the blog, thus the reason it is different, but it is amazing how many people's url address is not the same as the blog title.
Have I changed the title at anytime? No

I can't say I have ever really thought about changing it....maybe on the odd occassion when I come across someone else's who has a super cool name for their blog and I wonder why I didn't come up with something super cool too. But for the most part no.

What about you?
Any interesting story behind your blogs name?

Leave me a message if you have so I can come over and read your story.

Blow My Own Trumpet

Occassionally you can be really proud of yourself and feel like you want to tell the world.
Unfortunately some people then think you are showing off when all you really wanted to do was celebrate when you have achieved something great or be proud of your own success for just 2 minutes.

Well this is one of those times when I am going to pronouce to the world how wonderful I think I am and how proud of myself I am too.

I am currently, slowly, completing my Degree in Nursing. This entails 1 paper every 6 months and each paper requires 2 essays.
The first was Nursing Knowledge and I completed this between Feb and Jul of this year. The results for that paper are as follows:

• Essay 1 = 79%
• Essay 2 = 72%
• Overal Paper Mark = 76% = B+

Yea for me, well impressed with myself

The 2nd paper I am doing is Law and Ethics within Nursing, this is being completed from Jul through to Nov.
And yes the reason I am writing all this is because I just got my result for essay 1 of this paper.
Now before I give you the result, let me tell you I felt this was one of my worst papers, I did everything in a 48 hour window one weekend (in fact the weekend as it was due!) and when I went through the marking sheet as answering the questions I really only put myself in the low 60's, but then I didn't care as I only need 50% to pass the paper.

So it is no wonder, as I sat at my desk this morning at work that I let out a little celebratory yippee as I read the result of 85% for essay 1.

I am very proud of myself and I want the whole world to know it.
Now I just have to complete essay 2 in the next 3 weeks and I am done with study for this year and have a nice summer holiday till Feb next year.

Not a Cafe!

When I was little I always remember my mum saying at dinner time "this is it, I do not run a cafe"
Whatever was served for dinner was it, she was not making 26 different meals for 4 people just because 1 person didn't like/want/fancy whatever she had decided to cook for dinner.

Now I am a mum I am sticking to the same rule. After having to decide what is for dinner for the last 8 years, believe me when I say, I am not mucking around with dinner, this is it, like it or don't eat!

So we have stuck to the same rule, we cook one dinner and that is that.
However I am prepared to adapt what I am cooking, if it is simple, so everyone will eat this one dinner.

When the boys were younger they didn't like the chilli as hot as we did, so I cooked the chilli basic, took their's out and then added more heat to ours. No worries there as we all still had the same thing just adapted slightly.

I have found 2 pasta bake sauces in the supermarket which we like. However Ben does not like them, so instead of not having this dinner anymore because of that, then I have adapted.
I cook the pasta and fry the chicken.
Then I serve his pasta into a bowl and place chicken on top. Then I tip the sauce into the remaining pasta along with the chicken and everyone else has pasta with chicken with sauce.

Both bowls then get baked in the oven and hey presto we have a dinner that everyone will eat and everyone is happy when going to bed as they are full and satisfied.
To me this is not bowing to their every whim, just adapting slightly to have a pleasant family dinner that everyone will eat which leads to a happy home enviroment.

Now if they said they didn't want it all together and wanted a totally different dinner then ........tough, this is dinner, eat it or starve!

New Job

Over the last 4 years this seems to be something I have blogged about often.
My career within the last 4 years has been eratic to say the least.
However this time I am not leaving a company to move somewhere else I have just accepted a secondment to a project for a year.
It means no clinical hands on nursing for a year but that doesn't both me too much.
But it does mean that I get to use all the knowledge I have acquired over the last 16 years on how things work.
When we were in Auckland I had just started to get an inside look at how management worked within nursing, I am not totally clear on how it works in this hospital, nor do I know who does what senior role within the hospital, but believe me I am about to learn all this.

So I now have to find a decent wardrobe to wear to work each day, I was in surgical scrubs up until now, and get use to meetings and emails and sitting at a desk.

But hey, I like a good challenge.

Rugby World Cup

Oh I am sorry, did you not know this was on??
I guess when you live in a country where it is not happening and not in your face constantly for weeks and months leading up to it, then you are allowed to be a little blaize about it.

However, we live in New Zealand and yes... the Rugby World Cup (RWC) is in full swing and has 3 weeks left till final time. Everywhere you go there are flags flying for the country that person is supporting. Shops have designed their window displays around the RWC theme. Offices are decorated to support whoever. People are talking rugby every morning and people are not at work because they happen to be away a day or 2 due to having tickets to whatever game is on. So it has affected life just a little.

Have we got into it, well just a little, the boys have had times at school where they have been required to wear their favorite teams colours, one project they had was decided upon by choosing countires within the RWC.

The media, well what can one say about the media?? They have hyped this to out of this world proportions.

My 8 yr old is now wild about the All Blacks (New Zealand's team, if you didn't already know that) and I can honestly say it is due solely to the media. Sadly he only knows 2 of the players but again that is because they are the 2 highest profiled ones.

We are not a rugby family, yes we will watch it, yes we understand it but no we are not avid fans, no we do not have Sky Tv so we can follow every game religiously and no life does not revolve around a certain game on a certain day!

However, saying that, we did get tickets to a game during the pool games. We went and saw Wales v Samoa that was played right here in little Hamilton.

The boys loved this and were all excited about going. We got flags to wave, although we could only find Samoa flags at the time, so we waved green pompoms for Wales.

We painted designs on our face to show which team we were supporting. The family decided to split up and have 2 support one team and 2 the other.

Team Samoa

Team Samoa

Best Wales flag I could draw!

Team Wales

However, eventually Alex got a little bored in the 2nd half of the game and he just cheered for whatever was happening.

Samoa huddle prior to game

 

The whole atmosphere was great and I am really glad that Steve went to the trouble of getting tickets to a game. I thought the boys were a little too young to apreciate it but I was wrong, they didn't totally understand what was happening at times but hopefully they will remember the fact we, as a family, had a day out to the Rugby World Cup when it was held in New Zealand.

Blogtoberfest

Come on guys, have you got something to say, want to check out others in the blogging world?
Then join in with Blogtoberfest and see what is happening out there in the world of blogging.

I have been lax in my blogging this year, seems to have not been high on my list of things to achieve, although I do keep coming up with the posts to write and the ideas I just never seem in the mood at the end of the day to sit in front of the computer and write them!
That may change now as I am changing jobs this weekend and as of Monday I will be at a desk job for a year rather than in a clinical setting with hands on.
I may not know exactly what I am doing for the first week, but at least when I have 5 minutes I can always blog or at least write out the post for fine detailing in the evening, which if the post is already written then adding the pictures and possibly the odd link is not too difficult to do whilst watching tv in the evenings.

So Blogtoberfest, here I come, I will have 31 posts this month.

On a very happy note.......

Today is my Aunty and Uncles 50th Wedding Anniversary.
Yep, 50 years of wedded bliss together.
There is a big party at their house today which will be a great family get together.

Congratulations to all.

The Little Things

As you might remember, the head of a company survived

9/11 because his son started kindergarten.

Another fellow was alive because it was

His turn to bring donuts.

One woman was late because her

Alarm clock didn't go off in time.

One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike

Because of an auto accident.

One of them

Missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take

Time to change.

One's

Car wouldn't start.

One couldn't

Get a taxi.

The one that struck me was the man

Who put on a new pair of shoes that morning,

Took the various means to get to work

But before he got there, he developed

a blister on his foot.

He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.

That is why he is alive today..

Now when I am

--Stuck in traffic ,

--Miss an elevator,

--Turn back to answer a ringing telephone ...

--All the little things that annoy me.

I think to myself, this is exactly where

God wants me to be at this very moment..

Next time your morning seems to be

Going wrong ,

You can't seem to find the car keys,

You hit every traffic light,

Don't get mad or frustrated;

It May be just that

God is at work watching over you.

May God continue to bless you

With all those annoying little things

And may you remember their possible purpose.

A M E N

Winter Sport

This year, as mentioned before, we have had the pleasure of entertaining the new notion of winter sports for the boys.
Ben has loved soccer, there are no other words to say about it. He has grown so much in the last 12 weeks. His skills in all areas of the game have improved 10 fold and we now have an awesome little striker in our midsts.
He has learnt some awesome ball skills and foot control. I am so looking forward to when the back garden is finally finished and all flat, cause I can see he will be out there with a ball practising quite happily.

Alex, even though he didn't want to play soccer, sadly changed his mind after about week 4, unfortunately by then it was too late for him to join in! Next year for certain, as he too has gained some lovely little ball skills from joining in with Ben's team at practice each week.

Ben's team throughout the season has grown too and in fact they went on to win their division.

This last weekend the soccer season had finished, however most of the team signed themselves up for Jambo Soccer.
This is an all day of soccer games. Every team was represented by a country. To find out more about Jambo Soccer then check out their website.
Ben's team was Croatia, we even went so far as to get a Croatian flag to wave at the parade. It looked so cool, on the biggest wooden stick Steve could find in the garage.

However, it was a very long day, with lots of fast 6 a side soccer games lasting 10 mins each way with a 2 min break at half time.
Sadly the boys struggled with the pace of the games and lost every single one they played in. They never actually scored a single goal!
By the last game they had all had enough but were not quite ready to give up.
Unfortunately some bright spark decided to do the final results in an odd way.
The top 4 teams fought it out for 1st and 2nd. The winners got gold and the next team silver.
However this is where it got funny.....3rd and 4th walked away with nothing but the bottom 2 teams (5th & 6th place) got to play each other for the bowl prize?
So we had to play one more game.
We lost, no surprise there, although this time the team only beat us by 1-0 rather than the 3-0 from the previous game.
However what was ultimately surprising was the fact we walked away with a medal! Yea that is right, we got medals and certificates, bronze as they called it?! How? we are not exactly sure and do not understand why at all!

We, all the adults, logically thought that 3rd and 4th would fight it out for the bowl trophy and bronze medals and that the bottom teams would just get smiled at and told "well done for trying your best" and "better luck next time" but no.
Even now, 48 hours later, I am still trying to work out how we managed to come dead last, bottom of the bottom, with absolutely no goals to our name and still walk away with a medal etc.
If you understand all this and know why it happened this way then pray please let me know.

Celine Dion

Many years ago (like maybe 6yrs), Steve brought me the dvd of Celine Dion's "A New Day" Las Vegas Show.
This is a 2 disc set. On one disc you have the whole show & song selection and on the other you have the back stage pass (the whole show from behind the scenes) and Show secrets.

Now everynow and then I get the whim to watch this dvd, or more to the point, put it on whilst doing something else in the house and having the volume up loud so I can sing to it whilst working.
Last week I put the disc on to listen to the show one evening, Ben got into it really well. He loved watching her dance and sing, he loved all the Cirque de Soleil dancers and even all the flying stuff up on wires.

Then he had the pleasure of watching how everything happened from behind the scenes. He is now hooked.

It is his dvd of choice to put on in the evenings. On the way to school he will even ask me if we can maybe watch the disc when we get home, after doing homework of course!

He is slowly learning the songs and will happily sing along to it all.
Luckily for him she is one of my favorite singers, so he has no worries about getting to know her work as mummy has several cd's of her music.

When ever he hears people talking on the radio about concerts he now asks me who I would like to see in concert? Adele, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars? He always manages to come back to Celine and ask if I want to see her, yes I always say, he then agrees and says 'ok mummy but could I come too?'

10 Years

Yes, it is sadly already 10 years since 9/11
Man has life gone past so fast, well to us in a different country, maybe not so fast for the people who have lived through it.

I know everyone will be remembering where and what they were doing on the fateful day in 2001. I was, as mentioned a few years ago, in Hong Kong at the very beginning of our 6 week holiday to England. It definitely put a cloud over the whole time away from home. It possessed the whole holiday and gave us a different look on things.
September holds so many special days for this family and some of our most vivid memories are also around this month.

To all in America, I wish you well on this day. A little prayer goes out to you and your family. I hope you have moved forward and that life is easier as each day goes by. I don't want it to get easier that you forget, but that you are able to live with your heart and breath a little easier.

Tomorrow is a new beginning. A day to make new friends, new choices and a new ways to achieve old dreams. Live, laugh and love.

Secrets

Well it is not a large secret, just a little something that I have started but not told too many people about.
You see I joined the gym.

Now I know thats quite a shock but I felt I had to do something because I wasn't doing anything. Steve is doing Judo twice a week and many times he kept telling me to do something active.

So many weeks ago I joined and I am loving it.
I am not sure if I have lost any weight, but then I never joined to loose weight, I joined to get more exercise.

I have got into a routine, which is one of the important things about trying to get there regularly, I attend the gym at the same time as the boys going to Judo, it helps that the gym is just round the corner, so they drop me off on the way and I walk over when I have finished. I usually get to see the last 15 mins of their Judo.
I also go on a Wednesday morning after taking the boys to school.

So I am now attending 3 times a week, sometimes, although I must be feeling really unwell at these times, I have even been known to go on a Saturday morning.

The other day I had the worst day ever at work, I was seething when I finished work, and the feeling wouldn't go away, so I went and pounded it out on the cross trainer. And man did it feel good afterwards, I had calmed down considerably by the time I was finished and it felt good.

I am loving the feeling when I have been to the gym, I can see why some people can get addicted to it. However the gym is on the first floor and for the first few sessions I had trouble leaving each time due to the fact my legs were like jelly walking down the stairs. I admit I had to hold the handrail and walk slowly, but luckily that feeling has now passed and it is nice to have that stretching of my legs as I leave the gym.

The biggest help of all at the end of the day is the fact my family are behind me on this and make it as easy as possible for me to get there whenever I want.

Oppotunity Knocking

I am one that always believes that if you don't go for something when you see it, then you may miss out.
Life's an adventure and let's have some fun along the way.
The worst that can happen is that you fall on your behind and have to pick yourself up and start again, but sometimes that can be fun too.

I think my parents instilled this fun adventure into me, with the nomadic life we have lived then adventure is always something I am happy to go on.
Ok, I am not so sure if all the adventures the family have taken were what everyone wanted but I am sure looking back we had fun taking risks along the way.

2 weeks ago at work there was an ad for expressions of interest in joining a group to look at change and waste management within the hospital. Now waste management is looking at process and usage waste not good old fashion trash!

Anyhow, I showed my interest because it looked interesting. 1 quick group meeting to find out more info, the lucky chance of being called to a one on one meeting and this week I have been seconded for a year to the project as of Oct 1.

I am excited and looking forward to it. My current department is fun but not my total cup of tea. I sure can't see me staying here for the remainder of my career, so the ability to go away for a year is most apleasing to me.

The other advantage of moving to a desk job is that my blogging may stay up to date cause I will be able to post when I want to.

Inspiration

As many of you know, I am currently working towards achieving my Batchelors Degree in Nursing. Yes I am a nurse but I only have a Diploma, so am upskilling myself.
Now I am doing this all very slowly, 1 paper every semester, and seeing as each semester is about 5 months long I am therefore only getting 2 papers done a year.
With 4 papers to complete it is taking me until the end of next year to complete.

I am doing these papers by distant learning and that is where it can be hard work, however I have managed occassionally to get to the 1 lecture available each week, however the lecture is held in Rotorua which just happens to be 1hr 20mins drive away, so a huge afternoon away for just a 2 hour lecture.

The last sememster however finished in June, although my last essay was due in end of May (which I passed successfully by the way). This new paper just started at the end of July, so I had down time of nearly 8 weeks and thus lies the problem, my mojo for the next paper has yet to be sparked!

So yesterday I winged wheeled my way to Rotorua for the first lecture I could manage to get to, even though this is currently week 4! I even managed to leave dinner cooking so the family had something to eat when they got home before me.
And I am so glad I managed to get to the lecture. It was the total inspiration that I needed to kick start me into getting this paper completed.

Like the last paper I have 2 essays to complete on Nursing Law and Ethics and Leadership. 1 due middle of September and the 2nd due end of October. Neither essay is going to take too much to complete but you need the inspiration to hit the ground and run with it.

I will always be the first to admit that distant learning is not for me, it is hard and I struggle with the lack of contact with other people. I enjoy going to lectures as I always come away from them with some new information that helps me further, but then isn't that the whole point of lectures, to help you further even if you have to do reading yourself?
This lecture just goes to prove it, things fell into place yesterday and I know realise that I was looking at things from a slightly different angle and am now back on the straight again.
I have managed to rearrange family life and work so I can attend the next 2 lectures as well and hopefully this will assist me further and all will be fine.

The course tutor obviously has faith as she was already asking me which paper I am thinking of starting next year with ??

Back Up

How often have you read somewhere about someone having their computer crashing and loosing all their favorite pictues or documents?
Yes, I have many times.
Now never fear we have not had any accidents with the computer but it does always sit in the back of my mind.
I have mentioned to Steve a few times that we really do need to do something, just in case.
Now being married to a guy who knows so much about IT you would expect us to be all organised and sorted....wrong.

However, our computer has been playing a little silly recently. It has suddenly gone very slow, although there is still a lot of space available. We don't have many programmes running in the background and suddenly the music programmes on the computer all stopped working. It kept coming up with errors regarding 'unable to find that song' or 'that file no longer exsists'.

Steve said he would try some stuff but I suddenly had this horror thought that something may happen and we would crash the computer, thus having to spend a lot of money to get some nice company to retrieve all our favorite docs from the old harddrive, if at all possible.

So at 7.45pm on a Sunday evening I suggested he go to the Warehouse and see if they had an external harddrive.
$160 later and a harddrive of 1 terrabit (available space now of about 4 times our computer) we sat and went through everything on our computer, worked out what we would like saved and copied it all onto the harddrive. Pictures, files, documents & music.
So now we have a back up of everything we want to never lose. The harddrive is now hidden in the house well away from our computer so god forbid, if we were ever burgled, we would still have that first ever picture taken of Ben when he was an hour old etc.

I now have to try and remember to get Steve to back up the harddrive ever 3 months or so, cause then at least we will only loose 3 months worth of stuff and not everything!!

Hamilton Bloggers

Are there any Kiwi Mummy Bloggers out there in the Hamilton area.
If so leave me a comment, would love to come and visit you.

Quitting

Yes that does say quit not quilt, and no I am not quitting quilting.
Alex however decided the other day that he was quitting school!
I, wanting him to accept the consequences for his own actions, agreed with him however I did have specifications to go with it....
He had to inform his teachers.

He was a little taken back by this and asked me to explain. I simply told him that I was happy for him (my 6yr old) to quit school but that he had to go to school and tell his 2 teachers why he was quitting and then he also had to go to the Principle and tell him as well.
I then said that I was happy for him to leave school.

He thought this over for a few minutes and then happily annouced to me that he had changed his mind and would continue to attend school.

Flying By......!

Time really does fly by when you are having fun.
Just read on my dashboard that I last posted on July 23, geez that was almost 4 weeks ago, life must have been good.

Life is good actually.

The family have suddenly discovered the joy of actually helping around the house and therefore having time to themselves.
For the last 2 weekends the boys have happily helped with what ever chores need completing, this has then been reflected in the fact that we all get to spend Sunday doing what ever we want.
Sitting around watching movies, reading books, filling the lounge floor with train track or lego.

Guilt free I have managed to sit and read a book and not worry that washing needs folding and put away or vacuuming done, cause it has all been finished and completed by the whole family.

However I am not holding my breath over how long this may last!
But if there is any one up there listening to my prayers.....then please help me to make this last at least a few more weeks.