Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Good bye Early Start- hello late night!

Up at 5:30am this morning after one of those great nights....

zzzzzzz
"oh what time is it?? Did I miss the alarm? Did I sleep in?"
Hard mathematical calculations
"No not time yet"
Repeat multiple times until 4:53am when I put Will back to bed and told him I really needed that last 37 minutes of sleep I was asleep within seconds and it seemed like only seconds later that the first of the alarms went off- it was actually 37 minutes though!

My Nana jumped out of bed when I went to wake her... I was a little worried I might have given her a heart attack she's used to living on her own.

Made the pilgrimage to the airport, arrived 20 minutes early.
Couldn't leave the car because of this.... (lucky for some!)


So I did the drop and run and was home before the plane took off and Les was still asleep.... should have just left Will with him!!

And now....

Will- asleep
Merenia- asleep
Kieran- Camp
Les- Camp
Nana- Dunedin (probably asleep)

Me- scrapbook room see ya!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Mega Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you know my cousin 'Miss' Wendy then you'll know why this post needs nothing more than this single line.

Miss Wendy's
Pregnant!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

MEGA baby

I took my Nana to visit 'Uncle Peter'... don't ask me whose Uncle he is... not mine anyway... There we got to meet two of his nephews including Kingston.....

Will really liked him- he patted him nice and gently.


They crawled around and had a jolly old time together.


Will is 15 months old. Kingston is 5 months old. (And no I didn't leave off a 1 there).

Kingston is THE MEGA BABY!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Enjoy your day!


Seriously, make a point of it. Take time to notice the little stuff and appreciate everything you have at your finger tips and take for granted.

Friday, March 27, 2009

??? 624- 111

If you are here from Flat Scanley.com or are easily offended by bad language then please skip this post it's not very nice...

Damn it I can't remember the rego letters but I am pretty sure they made a commonly used three letter abbreviation like; std or btw or ott. The numbers were 624 And I can't tell you the make of the car but it's a metallic grey/silver four door sedan probably mid to late 90's not a Toyota I don't think more like a Nissan Sunny or Skyline or a Honda Accord. It's got a baby capsule in the back seat passengers side and it's been driven by a skanky guy 19-early 20's-ish and his skanky westy ho girlfriend (around the same age) in her oversized dark sunnies who dresses a lot like Pascale from OF but doesn't have the decency to wear shoes.

If you see them parked outside a shop in West Auckland or anywhere else and their sweet sweet baby girl is still in that car seat with the sun beaming in on her underneath enough clothes for a sub antarctic jouney then just CALL 111. Because there is never a stationery emergency big enough to warrant leaving your baby in the car for 15+ minutes, especially when she's in a car seat you can carry her around in, and especially when you never need two people for a stationery emergency.

The thing that makes me the most angry is that I feel guilty for waiting as long as I did to call 111 and they are walking around oblivious as ever to the harm they could have caused.


Thursday, March 26, 2009

Day-time Nap: Defintion

Day-time Nap

1. A period or 1 or more sleeps taken by a baby or young child during which the mother may also rest or take the opportunity to race around the house attempting to complete a multitude of tasks.

2. A period of intense and angry screaming undertaken by a baby in his cot. During which the mother may also rest or take the opportunity to race around the house attempting to complete a multitude of tasks, all the while her stress levels building somewhat like the pressure in a volcano due to erupt. Screaming will last until child is removed from cot.

3. A period or 1 or more sleeps taken by a baby or young child during which the mother is stuck underneath the sleeping child who will awake and exhibit angry screaming if laid down in cot. But will sleep for periods of MORE THAN 3 hours if allowed to rest in mothers arms. Leading to extreme frustration and a complete lack of tasks accomplished on the part of the mother.

4. A period or 1 or more sleeps taken by a baby or young child. Nonexistent in some families.

We fall into the latter 3 have not seen No. 1 on the list in weeks.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Act like you have kids...

The problem with most grown-ups is that they are just that- Grown UP! Being a grown-up or what most people *think* a grown-up should be is unimaginably boring sometimes. Hence my reccomendation... ACT like you have kids....


Having kids gives you permission in the form of 'a reasonable excuse' to stop and look at stuff.
You wouldn't actually need an excuse if the grown-up acting grown-ups just got over themselves but unfortunately sometimes you do- in fact sometimes you just can't get over yourself enough to happily get out of the car on the side of the road to look at diggers, and 'jack-up barges' and dead animals and different birds and construction and all sorts of weird and interesting stuff.
And so you look from a distance or you look at 50km/hr.


It's not good enough... act like you have kids in the back of the car and stop and check it out.


And if the interesting thing moves... then you move and get as close as you can... and if anyone asks just say I'm showing my kids and motion to the back seat of your car...

and if you don't have any kids back there they'll think you are crazy and leave you alone to enjoy in peace while they go off and do boring grown-up stuff.

Speaking of boring grown-up stuff my Nana arrives today (@10:30pm- yep I messed up from the start) so I have to go do boring grown-up stuff because I don't cope very well with condemnation and the less ammunition the better I say.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Busy

There's lots going on around here and I am busy trying to get a bunch of stuff done by April 20th... I will post properly in the next day or so but in the meantime here's a sneak peek of what I am working on amongst other things....

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Fifteen


Soap

I'm on the hunt for some nice, cheapish, everyday soap. I'm not big on the smell of any of the standard supermarket soaps. I am not in the market to buy 'posh' delicious soaps so I am in need of recommendations for a nice soap that doesn't smell like Palmolive and it's ilk.

My ideal soap is the Oatmeal soap that someone handmade which was sold exclusively yet cheaply at the Knox Pharmacy in Dunedin. It was really soft- and just smelt a little like porridge but was mostly unscented.

So if you have any ideas for me then please let me know... also if you know where I can get Scully's Lavender Sleep Aid relatively locally in Auckland then let me know!

Thanks!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A step in the right direction



It's fun to be thrown....

Some older clips of the baby that I have just got around to uploading...



Milk, fair milk, how I love you

... and how you seem to hate me!

I do believe that Milk is making me quite ill. I am gutted.

Every so often I will have some weird symptoms or I will just get downright ill- queasy, crampy, and headachy. The other day I had to do a product test for a research company it was breakfast cereal and in a very short space of time I got quite sick. I also had a wicked reaction to a Kahlua and Milk... and as I know the cereal wasn't spiked with Kahlua I am lead to the common denominator... Milk!

So I have switched from Cereal to Toast and am trying to remember not to partake of smoothies and Milo's etc. But goodness it's hard. I love my cereal and I like fast too and cereal is a lot quicker than toast! I have ended up really craving it! I will be glad when not having it is habit!

Monday, March 16, 2009

A Visitor: Guest Blog

I got an email on Saturday from 'Uncle Scott' and Wyatt about participating in a Flat Stanley project with a twist- I love Flat Stanley so was happy to have a visitor for a week. And so I downloaded Flat Scanley and helped him dress for his location. Here's his first email home...

Dear Wyatt and Uncle Scott,

Hello from Auckland, New Zealand!! To be exact right here: Lat:36°47'47.60"S Long: 174°39'22.25"E on Google Earth! The trip here was very fast butI have to say while being downloaded feels weird and being printed just plain tickles like crazy it beats envelope travel hands down.

I am not sure where to start to even tell you about this place... first up is it Autumn here not spring but it still feels a lot like summer that's why my host family got me some blue shorts and this All Black top.... it was just too hot for those trousers and long sleeves. Today is Sunday and my host family are just relaxing at home. They took me out in their garden so I could get some fresh air after all that cyberspace. It's really very pretty here and we saw a Monarch Butterfly- super cool.


After that I played a game of Backyard rugby with Kieran and Jake then we went inside to play lego.



Then we had a drink and a snack.


My host family is: Gypsy the Mum (that's how they spell it here), Les the Dad, Kieran (11), Merenia (8) Will 15 months and Ruby the cat. Jake is Kieran's friend he was just visiting.


This week I think I might go to school, go for some walks around the neighbourhood, a swim, and maybe check out the Air base where Les works. Next weekend Kieran has a Rugby muster (I don't know what that is but I do like Rugby already!!) and there is a Air show on so I'm going to check that out as well.

My host family has a blog and Gypsy has asked me to do a few guest posts so look out for me there too: down the right of way.

Guys this was just the best idea I think I am going to have a lot of fun and it's only just began.
Take Care,
Flat Scanley.

Just gloating a little...


Virtual Rugby- Go the Girls!!! (Merenia is StevieLake)

Will Gets A Call




Sunday, March 15, 2009

Guest Blogger: Kieran: Blues vs. Cheetahs

Today's post is written by Kieran. I expect it will be boring it's about Rugby after all. :-)

We went to the Blues games because the Air Force were bringing players down in a Sea Sprite helicopter. The landing was cancelled but we still went anyway. We came in when the second curtain raiser for the game was happening. That was about 6:30pm. When Bluebeard, the Blues mascot was called out, a person dressed as a cheetah raced out on a Segway. Bluebeard came around on his boat, chased the cheetah into the dressing room and Bluebeard came out with the cheetah's head on his sword. When the game kicked off, the Blues went off to a flying start with tries to Anthony Tuitavake and Chris Lowry. The score was 17-0 to the Blues after 12 minutes. Then nothing much happened. When Dad when to get some food before the halftime rush. The Cheetahs scored a try. On the halftime hooter, Jimmy Gopperth landed a penalty. The halftime score was 20-7 to the Blues. After halftime, the Blues began the second half with tries to Isaia Toeava and Taniela Moa. The score was now 32-7. After Toeava's try the scrums went uncontested. With 15 minutes left, Jamie Helleur and Chris Smylie scored. On fulltime, the Cheetahs scored a consolation try. Final score Blues 46-12 Cheetahs.
After the game, I got heaps of signatures including Joe Rokocoko, Ali Williams, John Afoa, Keven Mealamu, Jerome Kaino and my favourite Blue, Paul Williams. I went home happy with heaps of signatures, a foam ball commemerating the 1000th game of Super Rugby and a Blues Jersey.

On the attack in the second half.

Defending on fulltime

Trying to get Keven's signature

Me and Joe Rokocoko


Me with my second favourite Blue, Ali Williams
♥K

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Kieran S this is your life...

In forty odd years time when Kieran has been Knighted for service to Science and Sport and he has retired from first class rugby and is working as the TV3 Sports Guy doing 'Stocker's Plays of the Week' and they surprise him with a 'This is your life Kieran S...'

Bob Parker Jnr will say something along the lines of Kieran I think you'll recognise this voice....

"I remember one night forty odd years ago when I had just taken Kieran to sign up to Massey RC for the first time and we went to the sports store afterwards. I had to ring his mother to make sure I was doing the right thing with regards to Kieran choice of boots... comfort, fit and price were all contributing factors but Kieran had the final say."

And Kieran will say "Oh no, you didn't, tell me you haven't got my Mum's scrapbook page!" And Les will walk out with the page I make with these photos......

And that'll be about the colour that the boy's face'll go I reckon!

The happiest ever

I realised the other day that I am the happiest I have ever been in my entire life.

There's only one thing better than that.

Knowing it.


Friday, March 13, 2009

Green and Friends

Yum.....Pink...

Blue


Yellow



Mauve

White



Orange



Purple


and black


Yum, Yum, YUM!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

On my mind....

  1. This you tube clip... I love love love it!
  2. Creating Keepsakes Magazine- they are in the sh!t! Check this out and this and this and this and maybe hold off on renewing your subscription for a while.
  3. Making a canvas for my peeps... about LOVE!
  4. Finishing the page that's been on my table for a week.
  5. White paint.... oh wait that's on my fingers not my mind. :-)
  6. Writing my own life manifesto like Gretchens only more me. :-)
  7. New Clothes.... RED clothes.
  8. These boots and these and these .
  9. A bind-it-all.
  10. Kathryn, I haven't talked to her since before Christmas.
  11. Milk, or lack of it.
  12. Letter Stickers.
  13. the organized & inspired scrapbooker by Wendy Smedley + Aby Garvey
  14. Set-point. This is the term I'm using to describe when I have a room completely sorted.
  15. Earth Hour
  16. Air Show and Open Day
  17. Ordinary Sparkling Moments

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Bugger- a short story.

Seeing as I don't have much else to do (yeah right) I just spent the last three and a half hours writing down this story that I came up with.

When I was feeding Will his dinner this evening I noticed the same wasp that Elliot had spotted when I picked the kids at school was sitting on the top of the car having managed to hang on despite the 80km/h that we were traveling. I'm not a writer- but I'm quite happy with it.


Bugger

My friend Gareth went missing on Wednesday 10th of March 2032. Well sort of.

You would have liked Gareth, everyone did. He was kind of eccentric but had a way that put you at ease. He had flame orange hair, and you'd practically never see him without his cape on. It was a dark dark navy blue with white stripes and a long black cats tail coming out the back. It was from a puss-in-boots costume his Mum picked it up for him back when Harry Potter was big. Gareth and I had been friends since I started at Hobsonville Kindy and we'd connected over a mutual love of the sandpit.

Gareth was single but it felt like the whole town was his friend. He was always buzzing around from one place to another, seeing this person for lunch and that person for dinner. His parties were legendary and not just because everyone came. But because Gareth's place rocked. He had a massive studio apartment in an industrial area of town it took up the whole floor of the building. No one in the area was at work nights or on the weekends so there was no one to call noise control. And Gareth ever the child had all the mod cons including a trampoline mezzanine- my kids loved to go visit Gareth.

It might sound like he was a big kid but he also had a more serious side as well. I mean that guy was smart- super smart, I reckon a genius. He could have been the president of Mensa. He knew something about everything, but science was his passion, he could have done anything he wanted in the field of science. But he always said he just couldn't work in one of those white coats. So he got a job at the museum working with the school kids that came to visit. The kids adored him and the teachers wanted to marry him and take him home- he was just that sort of guy.

I texted him that day, the day he disappeared. Well pixted him to be more specific.

It was a Wednesday I had just picked my kids and various others from school. When Elliot who was in the front seat beside me noticed this weird kind of wasp like insect on the windscreen. To be honest it gave me the creeps I mean you should have seen the stinger on it. Anyway the kids wanted to know what it was so Elliot took a photo on my phone and we sent it off to Gareth- because if anyone would, he'd know what it was.

Then I forgot all about it- I mean when we got home there were things to do; washing, homework, dinner and bed etc etc etc- it never really ends does it. So it wasn't until lunchtime the next day when I was sitting at the kitchen table feeding the baby his lunch when I saw that bug again. It was sitting on the roof of my car right outside the window. It was doing some weird signalling thing with it's wings and I shuddered at the idea that it might be trying to attract a mate. One of those creepy things was one too many for me. I did wonder why we hadn't heard back from Gareth- I guess he was busy.

A mother's work is never done and so Friday there was more washing to go out on the line. The wasp- I think it was a wasp, landed on a towel at first. It was doing that weird wing thing again, I kept my distance. Minutes later something buzzed around my head, mindlessly I flicked it away. It circled around and landed on my shoulder. You could hear it's buzz, a little high pitched voice like an distressed child. That just plain freaked me out- my skin still kind of crawls when I think about it. I flicked it off with my husbands undies, well I already had them in my hand. I grabbed the baby and raced inside... the rest of the washing would have to wait.

On Saturday we were heading over to Gareth's to help sort out the apartment for the surprise party he was throwing that night. He wasn't there when we got there I figured he must have run out to get some milk or something. I shot off a text and we sat in the car and waited.

That was the fourth time I saw the wasp- Les saw it too, it was hovering on the windscreen it was flying in a strange jaunty pattern of lines and swoops from my side of the screen to Les' and then it'd go back and do the whole thing again. We watched it for a while but it grew tiresome and so we used the windscreen wipers to swat it away. We waited 45 minutes for Gareth but he didn't show. I left a message on his phone and we headed for home- it wasn't like him to stand us up and we had a lot of work to do for the party that night so I expected we'd hear from him soon with some story of an adventure he'd been lead on.

The phone rang at 11:42am it was Lucy, Gareth's sister and recipient of the surprise party. She was wondering if we'd seen Gareth. They were supposed to catch up for her birthday lunch the day before but he hadn't made it. And then he'd stood up another friend that night. I told her my side of the story edited to leave out the stuff about the surprise party- I just assumed that it would all be some weird misunderstanding that we'd be laughing at over a drink that night.

That said though, we were worried.

I got off the phone to call Gareth's boss, while Lucy was going to call some of his other mates.

Gareth had missed the last three days off work with no explanation.

Lucy and I decided to head back to the apartment. She had a key and let us in.

Gareth wasn't there. It looked like he'd left in a hurry right in the middle of breakfast. His wallet, keys and phone were right by the door where he always kept them and the windows of the apartment were open. Another one of those wasps was buzzing around our heads insisting we give it our attention. Rachel caught it in a cup and released it out the window. After it came back in a third time we closed the windows.

Lucy called the police and I started to work my way through Gareth's address book asking our friends when they last saw him and letting them know there would be no party that night.

When the police arrived Lucy buzzed them in and they caught the lift up to the apartment. Two officers sauntered into the apartment accompanied by one pesky wasp. I caught it this time and put it out the window.

The police had lots of questions but no answers. They wanted to know if Gareth worked at the Lab next door or knew anyone that did. If we thought he'd been in there and other things like that. Lucy and I couldn't understand what it all had to do with anything and we grew more and more frustrated.

Eventually the police left promising to follow-up and contact us with any news. We sat around the apartment not speaking for about an hour. The only sound was the tap, tap, tap of that stupid wasp on the glass. You'd think it'd be able to figure out that it wasn't getting through the glass but I guess it wasn't that smart.

Lucy and I both left with promises to keep in touch if we heard anything.

Monday after school we get home and the kids find the wasp sitting on the doorstep. Plain as day you would have thought it was waiting for us to come home. Kieran and Merenia were looking at it as I got the baby out of the car. I could hear them talking about the the orangey colour of it's body, like flames they said. Merenia said it's wings were blue and looked like a worn out cape draped over its back. Fraser came up and remarked on the way it long black stinger looked like a tail. And that's when Finlay squished him. Splat on the doorstep.

It came out about three weeks later that 6 of the employees at the lab Gareth lived across from had also been missing since that same day Gareth had disappeared. The police tried to prosecute the company as they had covered up a toxic gas leak that same day. But the cops couldn't prove the case there was no evidence and the only witnesses to the crime were 6 wasps that had been found in the lab and they didn't seem to be speaking.

Photo by Elliot

He's got big....

.... that's what I hear every time I see someone we haven't seen for a while. Now you can see for yourself....




5am Epiphany

  • Creative, Imaginative, Inspiring
  • Generous, Giving
  • Caring, Kind, Thoughtful, Supportive, Loving
  • Organised, Reliable
  • Adventurous, Playful
  • Ambitious, Determined, Strong, Confident
  • Individual, Original, Unique, Me
  • Funny
  • Blessed, Content, Happy
  • Calm
  • Capable, Intelligent, Gifted
  • Dreamer
  • Enthusiatic, Positive
  • Honest, Trustworthy
When a brown velour headboard is starting to look good you know there's something wrong! Likewise if it's you and not the baby getting the big 'flat spot' on the back of your head that's a problem too! There should be some sort of thing that breastfeeding mothers can do... When I fed Will at 4am I tried to stay awake the 10 minutes that it takes to feed him and get him back into bed. But failed dismally. I awoke when he awoke in my arms at 5am- with a sore head and neck from having my head much like the flip-top guy leaning back over my pillows supported by solid wood headboard. I feed Will and got him back in bed in an effort to snatch another blissful 90 minutes or so sleep.... and that is when my brain kicked into gear full force.

I'm taking myself through the Next Life Coach Change Your Life Series. The first part is writing a list of who you are (as opposed to what you do). That's mine at the start of the post (the purple ones are the me that I am either not doing at all at the mo or doing a fairly crap job of) .

What I thought was interesting was that when I tried to think of who I am I thought of this girl...

The one who wore these...

It took 18 months to erode that girl into the girl that I have been for the last 10 or so years... all of those things in the purple up there she was all that. Every so often I see flashes of that brilliance now.
I have changed so much, all of the changes were subtle at first and eventually became all encompassing. The reasons for the changes were many but mostly boiled down to the same thing. I'm working on getting that girl back...

(If you know me I welcome your comments on that list- be aware it's not as straightforward as you may think)