Anniversary

I am not sure if I am allowed to celebrate this anymore.....given the fact that I do now have a new anniversary date, but this is still a special date to me.

Today Steve and I have been together for 9 years.

So despite the fact I will now be celebrating Sept 20, each year, I will still remember this date as it passes.

Bathroom

The bathroom is one of the rooms in the hosue that I would love to see sorted next, ok, not that many of the rooms have been sorted yet, but that is the one I would like to do next. Mainly because it is like the kitchen in that it is a big job, but also because it is a busy room and used all the time.

The layout of the bathroom is more or less fine, just can't stand the black vinel wallpaper, black tiles round the vanity and pink & peach bathroom furniture!

A few months ago we heard about a competition to win a new bathroom at one of the local bathroom shops, so I went along to check it out. Turns out that all you had to do was enter your name on a piece of paper and be prepared for someone from the shop to come view your bathroom.

So what did I have to lose from entering, so I did.

At the beginning of November someone from the shop called to say we had been drawn as one of the top 20 finalists. Could they please organise a date and time for someone to visit and have a look. Get a feel for what we wanted to do etc etc. The finalist would be drawn at the end of the month.

Now the shop is not your basic bathroom design place, the stuff is well out of our normal price range and not exactly the style I would have choosen, Contemporary European Design, but then if we win, I am sure I will find something that we will approve of.

The man came and measured the bathroom, asked me a few questions. Asked if I would be interested in a quote from the building people even if we didn't win, which of course I said yes to. You see when they say you win a new bathroom, they mean a new bathroom, not just the units to go in it, but the building work, plumbing and painting, in fact your bathroom would be totally made over.

So last week I got a call from the radio station covering the competition to tell me that there is a breakfast this coming Friday ay 7am, and could I please come along to it because this is where the winner will be annouced.

So on friday at 7, I will be all dressed ready for work, because I will have to skip off to work after breakfast, and I will sit and patiently wait to see if we win a new bathroom.

Would be so cool to win, one less thing to pay for.

Will keep you posted....

Computers

Unfortunately our computer has decided it does not want to play nicely.
In fact it does not want to play with us at all.
On Sunday evening it put its foot down and said 'no sorry not now!'

So it has gone to the doctor and he wants to keep it for about 3 days, or more to the point he is so busy, it could be up to 3 days before they get to look at our machine!

So we are computerless.
I can still add posts from work, but I can not add pictures because I do not want to start downloading pictures at work from the camera, so all the pictures I have to share with you will have to wait till next week.

So please bear with me whilst I have limited access and hopefully I will see you all on the flip side....

Boys Toys

This evening, our local Placemakers had a Ladies Night.
Yep that is right, you could go along and play with tools and learn some basic things.
I registered for it, but wasn't sure if I was in the mood for it......turns out it was the best thing I did.
I made a christmas ornamant, a coaster, won a box of 20 pegs on the hanging washing game and even managed to bang a nail into a piece of wood in 4 bangs!

The nail banging game was another competition, where the person who banged the nail in in the least amount of hits won a prize. Well I got 5, which was the lead and then another lady got 4, so I then kept trying until I got 4 too.
Then we had to have a 'nail off"! The fastest one to hit in 5 nails won the prize.
It was a fast and furious game and I was the runner up...the other lady beat me fair and square.
She won the 9 piece pink tool kit.
The manager of the store had given me tips throughout the evening on how to use a hammer, thus the reason I got a 4.
I found him after the game and said that I had lost, but gained a bruised finger where I did actually hit my hand with the hammer, he laughed and said good try.

Although about 10 minutes later he came and found me and gave me a 9 Piece Pink Tool Kit, he said as a runner up prize, but hey I fought hard for that tool kit.
So now I have my own tool kit in a bag (comes with its own carry bag) and I will take a picture and post it later so you can see what I got.

Only thing is though, Steve was kinda hoping I would learn how to paint on this evening, because painting is not my strong point, but unfortunately I still don't know the correct techniques for painting and we have a lot to do around this house!!

Life

Do you ever go through a faze where things are all below the line, you have no enthusiasm for things and you feel totally overwhelmed?

That is me at the moment.
Life is good, I have just got married, Ben is very happy at school and the summer is coming, but other than that life is in a slump!
I need to tidy the house, but can't see a window to do it until Saturday. There seems to always be something else more important to do in any of my free time at the moment and I am beginning to feel totally swamped.

Work is not great, I am on my 3rd day of the project, which is going ok and will be interesting for the next 12 weeks, but I am not sure what I will be doing when it ends as I do not want to go back to what I was doing before, and I think this is effecting everything at present.
I didn't realise how much my part time job did effect me until you are feeling negative about it and then everything is effected.

I volunteer for a Not for Profit Organisation, which I am very passionate about, but at present I feel that it is taking over everything, so am backing down from some of this as it is overwhelming me. Things are still getiing achieved but I feel my family are suffering because of this. But then my committee have noticed a change in me, so something has to give.

I also seem to have to stopped coming up with posts for my blog, so I know things are not good. I have posted about 11 posts in November and usually by now I am up to at least 1 or 2 ahead of where I should be. I have things to post about, but no effort to want to sit at the computer and load them, luckily on that score, I was so a head in my little challenge that taking time out means I won't not achieve the challenge I set myself.

So there you have it...my negative moments at present. I can't actually put my finger on it totally but the days are just rolling into each other at present and there seems to be no room to breath. I am a do'er and I think all my doing has clashed and all hit a head at the same time. Considering I had my birthday yesterday it is not the greatest feeling to feel so crap.

So how is your week going? Any better than mine?

My Day

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to.........oh yea, me

Happy Birthday to.......ME

Tis my birthday and I am at work. I try never to work on my birthday, but unfortunately this year just didn't actually flow right.
Oh well will still try and have a good day whilst at a training session!

What Do I Want?

It is my birthday on Tuesday.
Steve is aware, but suddenly asked again today...'when is your birthday?'
Oh yea...'what do you want?'

Sad thing is, I can't think of anything I actually want. There are things I would like, but they are either too expensive or things that I don't actually need but could quite happily buy just because!
We stopped off to get ice cream this afternoon after having been to the garden centre shop. Steve suddenly said, lets look in K-Mart, they might have that hotplate we have been looking for?
Well worth a try seeing as we can't find one anywhere.

Turns out they don't have hotplates but they did have a 120L bar fridge that is the perfect size for our caravan and at only $150 brand new it was too good to pass up on....so the ever resourceful person that I am said 'but I have always wanted a fridge for my birthday!'
Steve just looked at me and laughed, ok so I did then convince him of why it was just what we needed and we brought it anyway, as for my birthday, well I will just wait and see for Tuesday.....

Parenting

I have just heard on the radio that Jennifer Lopez would love to have more kids.
Already, even though her twins are only about 6-8 months old. Apparently she is loving having kids and would therefore love to have more, especially more twins!
Of course she is loving having twins, she has help.
I would love more kids but not without that proverbial 'Village' everyone tells you you need to raise kids with!

It really bugs me when you hear famous people going on about how life is so grand with the kids and how it is so easy! Yea, give up the nanny, and all help and see how long you last before you realise that life with kids is awesome but sometimes it is far from grand!

Work

I am writing this to you from my new desk at the project I was talking about several weeks ago.
Yes they have finally got themselves sorted and let me move on to the project.
So here I will be until the end of January.

I am however in the throws of checking out some new jobs. I had an interview the other day at another Private Hospital. Very hopefully, all went well and I think she wanted to offer me a job on the spot, although she has to go through all the usual procesess.
I also have an application in for another job and I spoke to a lady yesterday that will be advertising a community job next week.
Really interested in the community job, would be great fun for the year, as it is only a fixed term thing through to next October, but I think it would be fun.

So my options are open at present and I am open to options.
Will keep you posted as to what comes of it all....

Alex

Alex spent yesterday having ups and downs. One minute he was the happiest little boy around and then he would crumble and become a monster.

We had Jumping Beans in the morning and just as we were leaving home to go, he raced upstairs and arrived back down with 2 Barneys and yellow teddy. Turns out he had remembered that it was Teddy Bear Picnic Day at Jumping Beans! I was amazed, I had forgotten until he appeared with his toys. I was quite shocked that he remembered.

Although 3/4 of the way through Jumping Beans he suddenly decided that he ahd had enough, he was miserable and promptly got stroppy. I asked him if he wanted to go home and he promptly said yes, got his stuff together and walked out! He was not in a good mood.

When we had finished lunch I explained that I needed to make some cookies for a meeting I was hosting that night. Next thing I heard was this noise in the kitchen. I thought maybe he was gettign stuff together to make a sandwich. Suddenly he arrived at the door to inform me that he had been 'Cleaning!' and could I please help him put the toast machine away.
When I got into the kitchen, everythin g that was on the bench was now gone!
I found the left over apple core in the pantry, the jam and butter was back in the fridge and the knives were in the sink. I couldn't however find the dirty chopping board? Opened a few cupboards but nothing came to light. However later when makign the cookies I mentioned something about rolling them out and placing them on a board, with this he promptly opened one of the draws where we keep the utensils and aksed if this was the board I wanted? Yes you guessed it, the dirty board I couldn't find.
He had me in stitches as I told him he was so cute and adorable.

But then later in the day Ben had a swimming lesson and by the time we left I was ready to sell both of them!

The joys of parenting. One minute you are up and the next down.
Guess it keeps life amusing

More Change

Man how things can change in one night.

We woke this morning to learn that yes we definitely have a new Prime Minister.
The old PM has conceded defeat and has actually resigned as the leader of the opposition party. So that will be an interesting few months to see who stands forward as an interested party in the job of leading the other party. They say we should know by Christmas.
Another strong leader, of another party, within politics has also called it all a day after neither his party or any of the MP's from it gained a seat in parliament.

It will be like central station in parliament when they next go back, because all you will hear is the station master going "All change please!"

Our Turn

Today is election day in New Zealand.

Time for us to choose who we want as Prime Minister for the next 3 years.

Not quite as dramatic as the US elections, but could be very significant for NZ over the next year.

As mentioned the other day, we have had the same Prime Minister in office now for 3 terms (9yrs) do NZ feel it is time for a change? Do they feel there is still something left in the old lady?

Time will tell, should know sometime later tonight...

Me, I am not into politics in any shape or form. I never really know who to vote for. It can all get very confusing at times and I can totally understand why some people just stay away and hide under the covers until it is all over. The tv and radio ads seem to go on forever and some of them gets sillier the closer we get to election day. Tv will go back to being reasonable now as no more ads are allowed! Yea..

Never fear, I did vote, but sometimes I feel it is a case of eeny meeny miny moo and tick where ever the pen lands.

Highs and Lows

As I have posted before Steve has diabetes. He has Type 1, which yes, means he injects himself with Insulin up to 4 times a day. He has had it for the last 24 odd years, so this is nothing new.

Yesterday he came home from work and went outside to finish clearing some of the garden. After dinner he spent another hour and a half out there with the boys.
The boys finally went to bed late about 8.30 and him and I sat down to watch a movie. We finally watched 'St Trinians' with Colin Firth and Rupert Everett, it was a good laugh.
In the evenings Steve will sometimes have a snack, keeps him going, and last night was no different although he ony had a snack size packet of chips.
I went to bed about 11.15 and I think he followed a little while later.

At 2.10am I got woken up by Steve as his arm jerked across the bed. I thought Ben was with him and had maybe kicked him, which he is good at doing when he is sleeping with you, but 2 minutes later Steve did it again.
This time I leaned over to check for Ben and realised that he wasn't there, and that got my brain ticking because Steve didn't ask me what I was doing!
I quickly got the light on and there is Steve laid there staring having these jerky movements. Of course the first thing I did was ask him if he was ok and of course all I got back was this glassy eyed stare.
Now you have to remember that it is 2am and I have just woken out of a deep sleep, so the brain doesn't work as fast as normal at that time. So of course it took me more than a second to realise that he was having a hypo.
So I quickly got a chocolate bar from the box by his bed and then had to ask him to eat it!
It is very weird asking someone who is not communicating with you, who doesn't have any idea what is going on, who probably at that moment thinks the world is a triangle and that green men do exsist! to eat a chocolate bar. Infact after this time Steve asked me why I had woken him up? Because they have no idea this has happened until they come out of it when they go very low.
Luckily for me this time he happily opened his mouth and chewed the bar down, in fact he happily chewed down 4 mini choc bars and a whole glass of juice. The problem I have is that I don't want to give him too much because otherwise then you make him feel like crap because his blood sugar goes so high, but you need enough to get him out of the hypo. The other problem is there is not an instant reaction, in fact last night it took 20 minutes before he was actually talking sensible to me. In hind sight I should have jabbed him with the small glucose injection I have, but as he was able to eat for me then I went down that route instead, but I suppose I could have done both, but hey, there is no manual for this sort of thing, it is a feel as you go situation at 2am all on your own! If I can get him to eat for me then I can get him out of it on my own, but if he is unable to eat then I jab him at the same time as calling for an ambulance. They don't ever have to take him to hospital, but when you have an uncooperative semi consious man help is always nice.

Is it scary? Well my heart is racing the whole time, it is a pain having to race down the stairs to get stuff from the kitchen.
Am I scared of him? Sometimes, unfortunately they get snappy when having a hypo and you are never sure what they will do, although when they go as low as Steve did last night I kinda had no worries as he was never going to be able to physically move off the bed so I knew he was in no harm. You have to use humour during the episode beacuse otherwise you get annoyed with them and they can't help it.
Last night I couldn't work out how to use the blood sampling kit, couldn't get the stabbing pen to work, so there I am trying to test his blood, but I was actually unable to get any. I finally got some with his help after he had come round enough to assist me.
That is the other problem, this is not a regular occurance so 18 months can go by and in that time I kinda forget the silly little things or more to the point I don't forget them but your brain is not thinking straight at 2am when you are suddenly woken out of a deep sleep!

What happened last night....well he informed me that he had forgotten to have his drugs after dinner, so he took them before he came to bed. No problem with that but he forgot a few vital things to take into consideration at the time...

1. He didn't test his blood to see what it was so he could adjust the amount to take
2. He forgot to take into consideration that he had used a lot of energy in the garden after dinner, thus burning off a lot of what he had eaten and therefore not needing as much insulin.
3. He hadn't eaten much during the evening
4. He took his drugs so close to going to bed that due to points 2 & 3 when the insulin took his blood sugar so low he was in a very deep sleep so he didn't wake up when it started to go low, thus the reason his body woke him, sort of, when it got very low and he was now past the point of being able to help himself.

It is difficult to get annoyed with him, you can't at 2am and then at 7am it doesn't have as much kick to the annoyance. But this is what does scare me.....

We have 2 gorgeous boys, who are a little too young to know what is going on. If I wasn't there last night what would have happened? The boys wouldn't have found him until 6/7am.

My best friend thought it was weird when she realised that I had never had a night away from Steve and the boys on my own. But when I explained to her that I have 3 people to think about at night she kinda saw my point. My first ever night away was at my Hen's Party, it crossed my mind several times and Steve told me to go away one of the times I called home, but it was too bad, I had to call so I knew all was ok at home.

He did spend 3 weeks on his own last year when we moved to Hamilton, so I know he is a big boy and can look after himself, and I have to keep remembering that when I go away, but it still doesn't make it any easier, because I think about the boys.

Oh well, that is a big look into what I live with. Don't get me wrong, this is a rare happening. As I mentioned this was the first time for 18 months that has happened in the night and I have had to assist with. So life is pretty normal to us, just every now and then it has some drama!

Time for Change

Life has changed, probably more than we know it.

He has done it....Barack Obama is the new President of the United States, the first black man to achieve such an office holding.

Way to go for him.....It is a proud moment to know I was here when history was made in such a significant way.

I think he will be good, I hope he comes forth on his promises and is given a chance to do what he has set out to do.

I haven't posted for a few days and I have so much to tell. Hopefully I will get some time in the next few days to tell everything that has been going on. Got lots of pictures to share.

Catch you soon.

Election

Tis the time for all to change.....

Is a history making day for all my fellow American friends. The last hours of the polls are now counting down. Is there going to be a women as Vice President or a new start with who becomes President. Back in the 60's and 70's did anyone every dream this day may be here?

Life will change, and life does keep changing, change is something that we unfortunately can not avoid.

Good luck to both candidates, may you stand true behind what you have campaigned with.

Is maybe the time to change here in New Zealand as well.

We go to the polls on Saturday to elect our Prime Minister. Will we keep the same person as we have had for the last 9 years? Or will we bite the bullet and finally get a fresh face in the seat?

3 years ago I think maybe people were prepared for a change but I don't feel the candidate was the right person to lead us there and so things stayed the same. This time round there is a fresh face on the other party and who knows, maybe New Zealand will decide to make the change.

It is a week for change all over the world

Lesson Learnt

If you let your kids have fun wave jumping on the beach and then leave their clothes on the sand, the clothes will get full of sand.
If you then place said clothes in a bag and bring them home to be washed, they will be wet and full of sand!

This is where the lesson is then learnt......you can not just place said clothes in the washing machine with the rest of the dark load!!
The sand will wash out of the clothes they were in and attach themselves to all the other wet washing in the machine!
When cycle has finished you will have one huge load of wet washing, covered in sand!

Moral of the story........rinse the clothes before placing them in a washing load.
Ok point taken, lesson learnt for next time!

New Blog to Follow

I , like always, come across new blogs to follow whilst reading someone else's blog. That is the way the cookie crumbles in the blogging world. So thanks to Rocks in My Dryer for this one.

The latest one I have come across is Owlhaven, an awesome wife and mum, with 10 kids from 3 countries, an awesome husband, fragrant kitchen, big ol' garden, busy homeschool, smoking camera and always something to write about.
I found her just at the beginning of October and she is the one that has inspired us to tell our Love Stories in October.
What is fun, is that her husband has now started his own blog too, Duct Tape and Baling Twine, which is actually fun to read. All about the garden antics that he gets up to etc. He has even been taking part in the Love Stories for October and posting his side of the stories.
I am actually enjoying reading his blog because it is not often that you come across a practical blog to read that is written by a guy.
The best post by him yet....the one on the Garden Vacuum. This made me laugh.

Look forward to reading more from both of these delightful people

Love Stories - Part 6

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5


Several of us decided to dress up for the Christmas party, so I wore my cocktail dress, which by the way looked so elegant with crutches!

I was walking reasonably well, but still needed the crutches to help with the walking, but having the restaurant over 3 floors was a tad difficult when it came to the buffet food time!

Steve was at the party but seemed to be playing it cool with me, said hi and joined in all the conversations etc but kept his distance.
Must admit this irked me slightly, don't like being ignored!

However at dinner he took it one step further and promptly sat at the other end of the table to me! I had to sit on the end because I couldn't manuover down the side, so he sat at the other, staring down the table at me.
He spent the whole dinner talking to a friend of ours, who by the way was wearing this drop dead gorgeous red dress, and watching me inbetween everyother bite. I don't do jealousy well, my eyes are blue but they can go green very quickly!
Needless to say, it was a long meal.

For November we were having really great weather so we all spent most of the evening outside on the deck overlooking the harbour. Steve did talk to me, eventually and the main theme of his conversation was "Could he take me home?"
I of course came up with every excuse in the book as to why I couldn't go home with him, but none of them seemed to stick too well.

After doing the rounds and talking to other friends there, I ended up having a quiet conversation with one of the doctors there. He was complaining about making a move on someone he liked at the party and I was giving him my opinion. He also gave me his opinion on Steve and also pointed out what the whole department had seen going on for several months, that I had been so oblivious too........

So I took a deep breath, decided 'what did I have to loose?' and hobbled over to him.
Next time he brought up the topic of whether he could take me home? I said 'Yes'

As this is Love Stories for October and therefore there will not be any more posts, then I will add a few things.

1. Our first official date was to the Santa Parade the next afternoon.
2. After only 24 hours I had already told my parents about him, they lived in England at the time.
3. Apart from a couple of nights, we have more or less been together ever since we got together on Nov 26, 1999. I was 29 and he was 38 when we got together, so we weren't fresh out of college!
4. I never thought we would go the distance because he said he didn't want to get married or have children.
5. Our first son was born in 2003
6. Our second son was born in 2005
7. We just got married on Sept 20th, 2008 (so we have only been married for 6 weeks!)
   

Nov 26, will always be a special date for me

Weight

I seem to have lost some weight!!
Not sure where I put it or when I lost it........but having said that I am not going to be putting up a sign asking for it back!

Like most people I am sort of consious of how much I weigh and whether I need to loose any weight.
I am happy with how I am but know that I could always loose a couple of kilos to get me back to my pre baby days, all mums know where I am coming from with this.

What is so surprising about this weight lose is that I haven't actually been doing anything big to warrent it!
I am not worried that there is anything medical going on, I think it is more that I am just being aware of what I am doing and eating.
I read somewhere that when you start to eat your dinner you should aim to eat half of it.
Then stop, take a breath and then plan to eat half of what is left, but at the same time you need to listen to your body. If it is starting to tell you it is full, then stop eating.
So I have been trying this. I have been eating all the same stuff, but just making my portion a little smaller, eating a little slower and actually listening to my body.
I am not determined to finish all my meals now because when my body is telling me it is full I stop.
Same with snacking in the evenings, I stop and think about whether I actually need it and also can I fit it in?
Seems to be working cause the 2 kilos I have lost is not much, but better than having them.

So now I am making a consious effort, being a little more active, thinking about what and when I eat. Just little things that could make a small difference.

Long Weekend

Here in New Zealand we have just had our Labour Day weekend.

So as usual we went over to our caravan and got away from it all for a couple of days.

We had the added joy of Grandma and Grandad joining us.

The weather was not fab, but that didn't stop us having a relaxing time and doing lots of swimming in the pool.

The highlight of the whole weekend for me, was on the Sunday evening, Grandad asked me to show him the beach. It was a little windy but the boys and I drove him to the beach.

For 15 minutes the four of us stood on this empty beach in the wind playing 'runaway'.

We would stand on the beach not far from where the water was coming in and then just as it was about to touch our shoes then we would runaway.

The boys had such a great time and I must admit I had fun being there with my dad, and the two of us playing with my children.

The downside of the weekend was discovering, even though it wasn't bothering him, that Ben had a raging ear infection!

When we arrived home I whipped him off to the emergency doctor, who took one look at the pus in his ear and said 'oh yes, need some antibiotics!'

So now we have the joy of getting him to take his medicine 3 times a day until finished. Ben is not into medicine and it is a fight everytime he has to take a spoonful.

It could make for a long week!