Tahiti - Crabs

Whilst walking along the road on Moorea we kept seeing things move just out of the corner of our eye.

There were loads of holes in the dirty along the road and Steve had commented as to where they came from.

So there we were one morning walking along and if you were quick enough you saw the crabs move!

And we are not talking one or two here, loads of them. Lots of different sizes too.

They all sat out in the sun and very quickly dissappeared down their holes when ever someone walked past. Sometimes they would hesitate at the top of the hole, as you can see in the pictures, just in case they were in no danger and didn't have to go down.

The side of the road had lots of bushes and in one place it was like the whole bush area was moving as you walked past because you just caught all the crabs moving down their holes as we walked past.

Half Ton Dad

Last night I watched a programme about a guy that weighed over 1000lb in the US, that is about 470kg.

They didn't dwell too much on how he got to this size, just more looking at what the hospital and famous Gastric Surgeon was going to help him with to reduce his size.

One area they breifly touch on was how he had got to this size when he could no longer walk? They never actually came right out and said that his partner was to blame but they may as well have, because she was the one bring him the food.

At the end of the programme it mentioned that the family, now that he was out of hospital, was now receiving nutritional support and therapy! They should have been receiving this the whole time he was in the hospital because every shot they showed you throughout the show was of them eating take aways - Burger King, Wendy's etc

His daughter had a baby whilst he was in the hospital and at one stage they showed you the mother letting her 4 month old baby try a Wendy's hamburger!

This family never sat at the table to eat their meal.

So many things were jumping out at me that was wrong, yet their worry was this guy and getting his weight down. He still wasn't totally mobile when he came home from the hospital 8 months later and I was afraid that as he was still dependant on his family to bring him his food that things may go backwards instead of forwards?

They also followed a 19 yr old who had got to the point of no return. He had one thing in his favour and that was the fact he could still walk himself to the bathroom. In fact he walked himself out to the ambulance when they came to collect him to take him to hospital.

His mother admitted that she was to blame as she mothered him too much and gave him what ever he wanted, but when ever he wanted food, she made it and brought it to him whilst he sat in his chair.

If he could move, even with difficulty, he should have still be attempting to walk to the kitchen to get the food, at least the moving around would have been doing him some good?

But no his mother spoilt him rotten, literally.

It was an interesting programme from the theatre nurse side as it is only in the last 3-5 yrs that we have started operating here on patients that are larger than the recommended 140kg weight for the operating table. To see them operating on this guy, who yes had lost a lot of weight by the time they did the first operation, he was down to 600lb / 270kg.

It was still amazing to comprehend it all, just the sheer size for the anaesthetics alone was amazing.

At the end of the programme their talked to one of the main ladies involved with this and asked her if this amazed her, the size the man had got too? Her answer was that sadly no, she expected to see larger people soon.

Tahiti

Tahiti, for those of you that don't know, is part of the French Polynesian.

It is probably the last place on the world to change to the next day, it is right next to the date line.
It is an old place, that struck me as dirty and in much need of some TLC.

Moorea is one of the islands and is well set up as a honeymoon destination. There is really nothing for families to do on the island unless your children are a lot bigger and are prepared to sit around the pool all day long or are capable of swimming and snorkelling in the sea.
Tahiti is very expensive, there are currently 50FPFrancs to $1NZ or 75FPF to $1US. So if you are ever going to go there then make sure you have a very good package deal set before you get there, will save you a lot of money. We luckily had breakfast and dinner included so only had to find lunch each day.
Our package included 1 night in Papetee, then transfers by ferry to the island. 5 nights on the island at the Moorea Pearl Resort & Spa and then the transfers back to Papetee with another night there before our early morning flight home.
Both hotels/resorts that we stayed in were lovely, although the one on Moorea was the better place.

This is our first hotel room, very simple yet so attractive.

The hotel looked out over the water to Moorea in the distance.

What amazed me, was the fact that the weather is so paradise pacific the whole time, then there are no walls on the restaurant or the reception areas in the hotel. The above picture shows you the restaurant looking out over the wonderful lagoon pool and there are no walls.

This shows you the garden area around our room in the resort on the island. Beautiful

Grandma in Charge

For us to be able to have the wonderful week long honeymoon that we have just experienced, then we needed help and that came in the form of Grandma, my mum.

She was kindly volunteered by Grandad to look after our rat bags for 8 whole days so we could go away.

We will be forever grateful to her for what she did for us. It just wouldn't have been possible without her.

But it is so funny to listen to her tell us about her week with the boys. You can read what she wrote here.

As I did the vacuuming last night I remember her saying that she was sorry she never got it done whilst we were away because she never had 5 minutes to do it! Man that sounded vaguely familiar.

It is just so funny hearing her say what she could and couldn't get done due to running out of time or never seeming to have 5 mins to herself to achieve that one goal for the day.

Now she did her fulltime mothering over 30 years ago so she knows all about this stuff but still great to realise that it is not in my head and that someone else had trouble achieving the things I don't get done on a daily basis!

WFMW - Kitchen Organisation Edition

It is that time again when Rocks in My Dryer hosts her Works for Me Wednesday.

She has chosen the first Wednesday of each month to be a themed edition.

This week, as you have read is about kitchens.

What works for me is a small simple tip.

I do not have sponges in the kitchen to wash up and clean with, I use face cloths.

I learnt this tip from my mother.

After watching a programme on bugs, germs and bacteria that float in the kitchen, the worst area for it was........you guessed it, the kitchen sponge.

Because people buy their sponges then they do not change them until the sponge is worn, but they are not cleaning them either, so everything is growing on them.

The joy of the face cloth is that you buy say 10 cloths of one colour, preferrably a colour that doesn't match the bathroom so you know they are kitchen cloths, and then you have the ability to change the cloth everyday.

This then allows you to have a clean cloth around the kitchen everyday, no more bacteria growing on your sponge.

Cleaning the cloth in the washing machine ensures the bacteria are killed and washed away.

No more smelly sponges being used for everything possible and left lying around the sink for days until they are worn.

Works for me......

Pop over to Rocks in My Dryer to find out what works for others today.

Oh yea, also remember it is PINK month, so get out there and support Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

October is Pink Month

Today is the 1st of October and that means PINK month.

Yes that is right, it is now Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I love the fact that so many companies have now come on board with this campaign and support the cause.

You can buy so many products that are PINK, from deodrant to tea bags, and curling irons to computer keyboards!

So do your part for this cause.

Either support the cause or go and get that mammogram that you have been putting off for so long.

You can also go check out some websites that give you more information about the cause and also products that you can purchase.

A great site is the Breast Cancer Site where you can find just about anything you may want in PINK or even find out what is happening locally here in NZ

What ever you decide to do will be help in some way.

Me...I make sure I am wearing something pink everyday through out October.

Home

Yep that is right, we are now home from our honeymoon.

We didn't want to come home, but are so happy to be here with our 2 little munchkins.

I really enjoyed my week away from them, didn't actually miss them that much, but on the other hand I missed them loads.

It was lovely to have days to myself and not have someone constantly going "Mummy, I need, or Mummy I want?!"

I was fine with being away from them until the last night, when whilst sat in the hotel restaurant having dinner, I noticed a lady with a young boy, he must have been about 4 or 5 and all he wanted to do was go to sleep, it was about 7.30pm.

As I turned and looked over at this scene my heart went crazy.

All I could think about was how just only a week before I had been sat in that exact same position during our wedding reception trying to eat my dinner whilst Alex slept on my lap!

At that point I was so glad we were getting on the plane to come home the next morning.

The flights home were the longest ever when your heart hurts, especially the short 25 minute flight from Auckland to Hamilton that got delayed for a while and then seemed to take ages to take off.

When we finally landed I think I was running across the tarmac to get into the building to see the boys.

There they were stood with Grandma, waiting patiently.

Ben turned and saw me and ran and I just ran to him, picked him up in the biggest hug ever and cried.

Cried because I was so happy to hug them both, because I was tired from travelling and because I get emotional when I travel home from holidays etc.

It actually ended with me kneeling on the airport floor hugging both of them and I could see all the ladies standing around smiling and watching their hearts break with the knowing feeling of what I was going through hugging my boys after being away.

Tahiti was wonderful and we have loads of pictures and stories to share.

So I will get myself organised and over the next few days share with you our experience of honeymooning on Moorea, an island of Tahiti.

Glad to be back,

Tahiti Here We Come

Today we leave New Zealand and depart for our 7 day honeymoon in Tahiti.

Winging our way with Air Tahiti Nui we will ahve a lovely 6 hour flight.

White sands, nice temperatures oh and no boys for 7 nights.

Sheer bliss I say.

Our Wedding

By the wonderful powers of modern technology, I am able to bring you some pictures of our wedding from yesterday. They were taken by one of the guests at the wedding.

Unfortunately they are not the greatest pictures but they will give you an idea of our wonderful day.

We were so lucky in that the sun shone from 6am onwards and never stopped.

It was the best day we have had this spring, so I think the gods were watching us for this day.

The temperature soared, and there I was spending the whole 2 months before the wedding wondering how myself and the bridesmaid would keep warm on the day, and we had no worries about that, we didn't need shawls at all.

Everything went as smoothly as it was planned.

We had all our friends and family there with us and it was just how things should have been.

The Greenhouse where we held the ceremony

After the ceremony we went and had afternoon tea in the pavilion with the cutting of the cake.

This was followed by lots of pictures in all the most wonderful places around the themed gardens with all our frinds and family.

This is our friend Wendy, who kindly sent us the pictures that you are now looking at.

The Italian Gardens where I would have loved to have held the ceremony, but due to getting married in early spring I couldn't guarentee the weather, so settled for just having pictures taken here.

Ben and Alex had an amazing day and loved seeing everyone.

We are now off on our honeymoon for a week in Tahiti whilst my mum, grandma, looks after the boys.

Have a great week and catch you soon.

Wedding Day

Today is my Wedding Day.

I have waited a long time for this day.

I will be back soon with all the details and lots of pictures.

Have a great weekend.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Kimmy,

Happy Birthday to you...

Today is my best friend Kim's birthday, all 33 years of birthday.

Her only concern....why did I have to have my wedding the day after her birthday?

How was she meant to have a great day with drinking if she has to come to the weding tomorrow?

I told her to get over it.

Works For Me Wednesday

Over at Rocks In My Dryer, it is again WFMW where she posts what works for her and we post back with what works for us.

It has been a while since I last posted anything.

This week what works for me is LOVE & FAMILY

With my wedding coming up on Saturday, then having all my family around helping us and all working towards making Saturday a wonderful day for us, then that works for me.

Tomorrow all the grandparents will be staying here and the boys are going to have a ball with them all here. They talk about them constantly.

So love and family works for me as I am sure it does for everyone out there.

Hen's Party Update

On Saturday I went to Rotorua to have my Hen's Party.

It was a glorious day and a lovely break away, even just for 24 hours.

We drove over in the morning and spent the afternoon in the spa pool at Polynesian Spa Pools.

There was about 7 of us there and it was lovely just soaking in the warm water outside gossiping.

We finally got out after about 2 hours as we were all turning to prunes and beginning to feel a little light headed.

The evening was spent at a Moroccan restaurant that has just opened in Rotorua called Abracadabra.

It was fabulous, they had several little rooms away from the main restaurant, so there was 12 of us in our own little private green room.

So we could laugh and joke as much as we wanted without disturbing other people, we didn't have to listen to loud music being piped through and we could stay there as long as we wanted.

Apart from unfortunately having to wait a rather long time for the food to eventually arrive, it was a great meal. Good food and plenty of it.

They dressed me in fairy wings, a veil and tinsel for the evening. I think I was beginning to look like the Christmas Tree Fairy at the end.

Mum with our family friend Lynne

Aunty Pauline, she just blinked as the flash went and it caught one eye slightly closed, she is not drunk!

Veil and wings

Tinsel, wings and veil

The next day, mum and I headed over to the dressmakers to have a finally trying on of my dress. It is now all complete and hanging in my best friends house here in Hamilton.

Couldn't leave it hanging anywhere here at home as no rooms with anywhere that I could hang it so Steve won't noisy about it!

It looks awesome. Just right for me and so well done. I am very happy with how it turned out because it is now slightly different to how it was originally going to look.

I will post pictures of it next week sometime as son as I have some on the computer.

The weekend was also another momentous time for me, as it was the first time that Steve had ever been on his own over night with the boys.

May sound odd to some, but he has always been honest with me and said he wasn't sure he could cope. Ok also the opportunity for me to have a night away and leave him with the boys has never really come up. Yes I know he has had plenty of nights away and left me with the boys, but they have always been for work, 3 days this year and yes 3 weeks worth last year as we moved to Hamilton, but I have had 3 years of daily doses of the boys to learn how to deal with them all day.

I was always wary of leaving him when the boys were slightly younger because he was very good at having hypos at night and I always worried about who was going to help him if it was serious.

I do still have that worry all the time, but he doesn't seem to have many hypos at the moment so not so worried, plus the boys are older now and a lot easier to deal with, so no worries that he is going to get all hung up trying to sort the boys out and not eat enough.

So all in all a great weekend, apart from the part where my uncle was rushed into hospital at 1am on Sunday morning. Yes he is very sick, yes he has had an operation but he is now actually making a great recovery and crisis is a lot calmer now, although it was enough of a crisis for my dad to change his travel plans and be coming home a day earlier so he has more time to see him.

Only 5 days to go until the wedding

Sign

Grandma is in the country!

Yes that is right Alex and I drove up to Auckland the other day and collected her.

Shame that as we had to get out of the car so the biggest thunder storm came over head, we were drenched by the time we got into the airport, although we timed our arrival so well that when I went to pay the carpark ticket we had been there all of 14 minutes, now that is well timed for international travel.

Because my parents have been known to travel rather a lot, then we have got into taking a sign to the airport for when they arrive.

Ben actually got to meet Grandad for the first time when he was 2 weeks old, at the airport.

Yes that is where I presented this bundle to my father with tears in my eyes, going 'look at what I did!'

So going to the airport to meet grandma or grandad is not new to my children.

But because I couldn't find the usual sign I quickly threw one together the night before mum arrived.

Due to the rain and the quickness with which Alex and I entered the airport, found mum and then got back to the car, sadly I was unable to get a shot of Alex holding the sign, but I have posted a picture below of the sign.

So imagine Alex standing in the arrivals area of an airport holding the above sign and yes he was a hit!

The amount of people that read the sign and then smiled at the sight of this little 3 yr old boy looking for Grandma was amazing. I must have made everyones day. Pretty sure we probably could have come home with several other grandmas apart from our own if we had the space. I think several of the old ladies wanted to come home with Alex after seeing him with his sign.

Hen Party

Today is my Hen's Party.

Spending the weekend in Rotorua.

Will blog more about what we are doing and how it went later.

Oh yea, only 1 week (7 days!) to go until the wedding

What Would You Do.....?

At family circle time the other evening I asked the boys 'What they would they buy if they had lots of money?'

Wendy, my best friend, has a 16 yr old son. Her husband and she have just finished a 6 week parenting course on Teenagers.

One of the things she got from this course was a box of conversation starters for dinnertime, because everyone knows that dinnertime is when teenagers say the least!

I happened to read one the other day whilst at her house and then suddenly thought I would try it on my 2 monkeys.

The responses we got was definitely not quite what I expected.

Ben - he would buy a scooter or skateboard for his big friend Jake. Although when we told him that we thought Jake already had one, then he said he would get something else for Jake.

Alex - he would sort out getting 2 dolls houses made for his friend Eleanor and apparently Bob the Builder and Wendy, with Lofty, Scope, Dizzy and Muck are all going to help him make these houses.

Ok maybe the answers were a little far fetched, but the thing that I got from it was that they had both thought of other people instead of themselves.

Grandma

Grandma gets here today from Dubai.

Alex and I are driving up to Auckland to meet her at the airport.

Not sure if she actually realises all that is left to do for the wedding that I have left so she can be included in some of the planning.

Oh well, she will find out when she gets here later.

1st & 2nd Day Update

In the pouring rain at 3pm I stood outside the class room waiting for the teacher to release the animals.
Ben saw me through the window and waved, then eventually he came out with the teacher and started to tell me all about his day.
Whilst I stood talking to the teacher, Ben suddenly yelled 'Daddy' and went running off, I turned and there was daddy, come to meet his big boy from school on his first day.
No disrespect to Steve, I just hadn't thought about him meeting Ben from school, I thought we had taken him as a family and that after school would just be a normal everyday thing, but it was great to see Steve there, all smiles and questions for his big boy.
Turns out Steve had even finished work and was coming home then as well. As he said 'it is not everyday you have your first day of school, it is a special day'
Have I ever told you how much I love this guy, he is a sentimental as I am and a fabulous father to his boys.

So at dinner time we had our family circle time when we had all finished eating and we had some great talking going on.
Ben telling us all about his big day, Alex telling us about what he didn't like at swimming and us talking about taking our big boy to school.

This morning Alex had Daycare, all by himself, at first he wanted to know who was going to stay with him, but when I called Steve later to find out how he had been I got told that he had hung up his bag and then dissappeared, not a care in the world!
Ben and I walked to school and because we were rather early then we sat and read a book in his class room. We put his lunch box and drink bottle in the right place, emptied his book bag and then hung up his bag.
At 8.30am I went with Ben to the office to hand in some papers and then we walked back to his room, thinking we could sit and do something until the bell rang at 8.55am.
Instead he then turned to me and said 'bye mum, see you later, you can go now!'

Still got 15-20 minutes until the bell goes and I simply got dismissed!
Well I think he is going to be just fine, who said school was going to be a problem, he loves it.

WOW Toys

Several years ago I was looking for an areoplane for Ben because he was obsessed with them, we lived under the main flight path into Auckland Airport at the time, so he saw them everyday.

The only decent plane I could find was this one. A WOW toy, battery free, high quality, British designed, developmental toy which are guaranteed favorites with all pre school children.
It came with a pilot and an animal and has friction wheels, so you can run it along the ground and the propellers go round. It is a really solid toy and the best part is it requires NO batteries to make the parts move, which any mother will tell you is definitely a bonus.


This then lead us on to getting the helicopter, which is an animal rescue one, comes with several animals and the helicopter has a magnet, so you can pretend to fly down and grab the animal and fly it to safety. Again it has a friction button to make the blades go round and no batteries, in fact all WOW toys require NO batteries, so I love them.


We, over the time, have also collected the twin racing cars and the out door adventurer. Both allow much interaction and imaginative play, and everything goes together. All the people are the same size and can fit in any vehicle etc.


Alex has just found all these toys again in the toy box and now we regularly hear him playing along with them, talking to the people using lots of imaginative playing.


I think we might even have to look at getting another piece for him for Christmas as we need something aimed at his age group to get him, and although he loves all the toys Ben got for his birthday, we don't want Alex to suddenly jump 2 years in the types of toys he plays with when he is after all only 3yrs and needs to still learn what 3/4 yr olds learn at this age.

Alex Swimming

Alex had his swimming lesson this week and as usual loved it.

He has learnt how to float on his back and it is so funny to watch the teacher give him his float board, lay him on his back and then just go off and leave him floating around the pool, where he will just float for ages without going under.

Just floating around

They also tried a new activity this week, which was to sit on the floating board with their back to the teacher and then the teacher helped them to fall backwards into the water. Some of the children just fell back and others managed to do a roll at the same time as falling in, thus making them come up standing the right way up.

Alex wasn't so sure of this as he was told to put his goggles on his head and he didn't like that so much, said it hurt and that he wanted them on his eyes like normal.

I sit on the board like this.....

And then I end up in the water like this.