1000 things, maybe more.

I have a million kazillion things going on in my head- and a bunch of blog posts.... I have seen and read some amazing stuff lately. And I have plans to do a bunch of amazing stuff too.... but for today I have a lot of little things to do... maybe a 1000 things I don't know but I just wanted to say hi and let you know I'll be back to regular blogging soon!

♥

The weekend Pt 1

On Friday we loaded up the car and headed for Tauranga via Te Aroha.

Will quickly fell asleep and stayed that way practically all the way to Te Aroha where we stopped to grab lunch and then headed round to Helen's to set up our beds for the night.

Then we proceeded on through the driving rain to Tauranga

To join these people...

For the garden wedding of Les' Nephew Logan to Trudy... (who we had never met before).

I wish I could have taken more photos to show how amazing the Cascade Fountain gardens are but it was seriously pissing down so it just wasn't an option to be wandering around with the camera... getting the 5 of us from car to venue was a mission all in itself!

Taking photos was another mission... no flash= blurry pics.

And with flash made it look like a night time ceremony (@3pm).

Despite the weather it was lovely and very sweet!

And I believe Trudy will make a very welcome addition to the family (she's cool)!

Les' sister Mary and Brother-in-law Geoff (Ma and Pa of the groom)....

These two scrubbed up not so bad... nice to see him in something other than school uniform or chiefs shirt! Funny to see her make a beeline straight past Nana Stockley to snuggle up with her favourite Aunty Helen. They knocked back the punch when Les and I disappeared off to give Will some 'down' time in the back of the car (seems Aunty Helen is a sucker).

Speaking of Will that sip of punch was like some sort of non-sleep elixir he stayed awake from around 12 noon - 10pm (about 5 minutes after we left the wedding) like a wee energizer bunny! He got into all sorts of mischief.

All our love and best wishes to the happy couple as I said to Trudy; If rain on your wedding day is supposed to be good luck then these guys are so god-darn blessed it ain't funny!

♥

Apples

How good do these look... the neighbours tree is seriously heavy with fruit and it looks so good. I'm going to start making my cinnamon apple slice again soon. And stewing and freezing lots of apples... and we'll be breaking out the juicer for sure... Merenia is going to have a field day she loves doing stuff like that! It's going to be a bumper year for the grapefruit tree as well- can't wait!

♥

Good Eating

Yum! If you've never tried Greengages then see if your local fruit and veg supplier has them because they are so good!

I'm not a tea drinker but Lipton Iced Tea is so yum! There are three flavours- I like the peach best but they're all pretty good... the lemon is probably my second fave.
If you have kids then try new sultana bursts we've only tried the raspberry ones so far but they pretty yummy and great for little boys to practice their pincer grip.

And if you are a bird then sunflowers seeds are all the go... it's so cool to watch the greenfinches landing and snacking away on the sunflowers... click on the picture and you'll see it better!

♥

Oh man....

Do you know what's happening here?

This is Will making his pick for his favourite team in the Super 14.

He chose the orange block. Three times. Do you know what that means?

He's a Chiefs fan- disloyal little bugger!
If you are doing Skysports Virtual Rugby then you can track his progress by adding NinjaBabyWill as your 'mate'. The whole family is playing this year including the Brumbies supporter- you'll never guess who!

♥

A note from Will

Hi Mum,

I just wanted to let you know that I am sorry for being so cranky the past few days. I don't mean to be so, and I don't really like it myself. But I still have my cold and my stuffy nose so it's hard to eat, sleep, and breathe even.

I really missed you when you were gone all day Saturday and I'm a bit worried that you may take off like that again.

I know you need to put away the groceries, make grandad's birthday card and all that other stuff but I really need you to just hold on to me while I sleep and carry me around the house and give me your full attention for a few days till I feel better and reassured you aren't going anywhere.

I need us to stay home and just do the nice stuff like stories, puzzles and playing outside.

ok?

Love,
Will

Dear Will,

I am really sorry honey, I just wasn't thinking. I should have clicked to the fact your behaviour wasn't normal and was happening for a good reason.

I promise that I am not going anywhere anytime soon without you. And I will hold onto you while you sleep till you feel better. And if you need me to not put you down I will do my best, but please make an exception for the loo ok?

Don't worry about the groceries, the other stuff can wait, and I'm sure Grandad will understand!

The shopping is done now so I think we can stay home now. Apart from the school run, but i'll make up for that by reading lots of stories, ok?

You just take it easy and get better, that's the most important stuff, the rest can wait.

Love,
Mum
♥

Cheeky

I love that you can just see the little twinkle in his eyes...

The one that says "I know I'm not supposed to be doing this!"

♥

He's a Smoothie

Smoothies are big in our house at the moment! Will in particular loves them. We had to modify the teat on his bottle so he can get the fruity goodness!

Cause you sure as heck can't trust him with a cup.

♥

Round-Up ~ February

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

Creating Keepsakes, Healthy Food Guide, THIS MONTHS Next Finished!!!! 'The Secret', 'Clean & Simple' and 'Clean & Simple the sequel' (Scrapbooking books-not good house keeping) both by the lovely Cathy Zielske . 'Henry and the Flea' By Brian Faulkner (this is a novel for children- I really enjoyed it- great for boys). 'Salt' by Maurice Gee- another kids book although I'd suggest for a bit older age group. Maurice Gee was my favourite children's novelist when I was a 'children' myself he's been surpassed now but definitely still in my top 10! This book reminded me of the O series of books... good vs. evil, rich and poor, black and white, nature vs. technology and all that good stuff. Another author in my kids top ten is Daniel Manus Pinkwater and I also finished one of his books on the day that Will was sick this month- 'Fat Camp Commandos'- which is lightweight and silly and fun along with having a good message in regards to weight issues. Also lightweight and silly and finished that same day was 'Utterly me, Clarice Bean' by Lauren Child. We really enjoy LC's picture books and this was my first time reading one of her novels it'd be a good read for the likes of Merenia- a middle school girl who is not the world's best reader but definitely into reading 'chapter books'

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

The new series of Burn Notice, once. Trial and Retribution (on Prime) love these!!! I have spent a fair amount of time with the TV off- usually my 'background noise' when Will is asleep- I will sometimes check to see what Oprah is on about but mostly it stays off. Merenia has had her time limited after school- and there's a few evenings it get turned off quite early as well... now if I stopped watching 'Shorty St' then we'd only have it on for the sports news!

What special days did I celebrate?

Muz'Anniversary, Valentine's Day. Missed Lisa C's birthday!!!! :-(

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

Charms for the Nielson girls, flowers from the aforementioned girls!

What illnesses or health concerns did we have?

A wicked set of bruises from my jaunt up to the roof, Will smacked his face three times in one day no bruises but one heck of a sad cute little bump! And he got a cold at the tail end of the month that made him miserable- who gets a cold in summer??

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

Had a visit from Tara and Family. An evening walk. Kieran had swimming sports, a day at scrapbook camp.

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

Lipton Iced Tea (it was actually last month but I forgot to say- I tried three different types all yum but LOVE peach the best!!) Not new but Greengages and coconut ice peaches were at our local F & V- yum, yum, yum! The new Dark Mocha Frap- quite yummy better than plain old choc and nice when you want to mix it up from good ole' Caramel... I'm suffering a little withdrawal from their yummy Christmas season flavour variety! It was always so hard to chose but oh so good to have a choice!

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

A ticket for my Nana to come up and see us!

What were this month's disappointments?

Missing Lisa C's birthday!

What were my accomplishments this month?

Losing weight (a little- me, Lots- Les) , exercising often (Les), eating well (lots of fruit) and drinking lots of water! Making a point of giving to others.

Anything else noteworthy to record?

Raising lots of Caterpillars to 7 butterfly's with a few more to come!

♥

If this looks fuzzy you need our help...

♥

Red, baby!

So on red day I started taking pictures before we even got out of the driveway....

I was reminded that a lot of the red in our environment is man made.

I was reminded that red is used often for food and drink.

I realised that there isn't as much red in nature as I had expected.

I found that red doesn't have as much as variety as colours like green and that sometimes it hard to make a call between orange and brown.

I was reminded that red is for warnings!

That red is sleek and macho.

I was reminded that red is HOT and sexy!!

And I was reminded that red likes attention... and it gets it!

I was reminded that I love RED!

♥

One more thing...

If anyone knows how I can switch off the thing that makes my cursor jump up a few lines when I accidentally hit the mousepad while typing on my laptop please tell me and I'll be your bestfriend. (If the bestfriend thing isn't up your alley... call me we'll negotiate I want this information- for the small remainder of my sanity I NEED this information.

♥

Busted

Ever have one of those moments where you think oh my goodness I just spewed the inner most workings of my brain and now everyone is going to know how weird my head is on the inside... yeah that was yesterdays blog post... I mean really WTF??

Here's that photo though...


Today will be busy between little mr sicky sicko and catching up some other bits and pieces... Tomorrow may be more of the same and Saturday I am up at camp for the day... so if I'm not around you know why....catch ya.

♥

the marriage of colour, a sick baby and other things...

Will has a cold and that meant the vast majority of the day was spent sitting under him while he slept and whined interchangeably. We did at least manage to catch both of Kieran's races at the swimming sports today - that was an unexpected plus! I've got three things to share...

I could tell you that the three things are the books I finished today... but they're, even though I did (no mean feat even if they were all kids novels!). My three things though are the three things that I was thinking about when Will and went for a walk on Monday.

The Monday before I had taken some photos when we walked intending to focus on a different colour each week- last week I did red and the plan for this week was to do green.... which brings me to the first thing I was thinking about. I chose to do the colour thing because it made me more aware of my surroundings (more on that in another post) and I found when I actually started to do it that it really made me think. I chose red the first week because I really like red I think it is a superb colour! And I chose green the second week because "Red marries green" I have that is quote marks because it is a quote- from me. I was obviously meant to be a scrapbooker because as long as I can remember I have always known about complimentary colour schemes- as a child I always said; "Red marries green, blue marries yellow, black and white and purple and orange".

So I set off to take pictures of green- obviously there is a lot of green out there I decided that I would only take pictures of green foliage if it had some other feature really going for it- like structure or form or patterns... this made it extremely hard to find green to photograph so I had to widen the constraints I put on myself and when I did I realised I needed to start again (which I will do sometime soon) that left me with some time to reconsider the marriage arrangements of the colours. Here's what I came up with...

• Green is the new brown, which is the new grey, which is the new black. In other words where black, brown and grey were the go to colours for matching with anything I now believe this is green. And I will prove it when I next go for a walk.
• Red marries green- but it also has purple as it's hot lesbian love interest on the side (purple is a girl colour as is red and yellow and orange- that's the way my mind works)
• Yellow marries blue but also gets round with that floozy purple, who is supposedly in a committed relationship with orange.
• Green and Blue are also involved in a gay marriage. Especially this green and this blue.
  
• And green is that gay guy who is everyone’s best friend... you know the one I mean (mine was called Michael we lost contact when I skipped town 13 odd years ago and I still miss him!)

I never realised that colours relationships were so complicated till I tried to photograph green. I should have known with all that triadic and other such stuff going on on my colour wheel- but I just didn't think beyond those traditional marriages... my mind was practically black and white or at the very least monochromatic.

By the way I only took one photo in the end... purple and yellow in a roadside tryst destined to end horribly.

The whole colour thing wasn't the only thing filling my head I was also thinking on a plan I have for doing something nice for Carolann and various other scrapbooking friends when the Universe makes the massive deposit our family is positively focused on currently (ala the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne). I can't tell you about the plan because it will ruin the surprise but it's a good one.

The third thing was a letter I was composing in my head to the Editors of Women's health magazine. The other day I got around to reading the issues of WH magazine that Les got me for my birthday (back in October) and the one I had subsequently brought more recently motivated by the headlines on he cover. What a waste of money! Here's why I think you shouldn't buy this magazine...

1. Trite little 'jokes' at the end of 50% of the quick fact material that magazine likes to use to fill pages. Not funny and VERY over done.
2. Repeated information- hello it's only been around for 5 months have they already run out of health and fitness info to report on?
3. The reference to people by their last names. "Stockley believes our magazine is crap and she has the evidence to prove it. In her latest blog post Stockley said that..." Maybe this is some sort of journalistic convention that I am unaware of but I didn't see it in the Weight Watchers, Healthy Food Guide or Next Magazine that I read subsequently. Isn't referring to each other by their last name the domain of boardroom Neanderthals who have problems expressing their emotions and like to indulge in a bunch of back slapping and other thuggish behaviour?
4. The promise from the editor in her first editorial that they did want to change me and thought I was just great the way I was. Yeah?
5. The feature in the second magazine where promised to make me over into a fitter, healthier version of myself and not just because it totally negated what the editor promised me. But also because it was so bloody hard to follow that I felt too confused to get off the couch let alone to do what they were suggesting- whatever that was? I have seen the same thing done in two other mags recently neither of which have exercise as a main focus like WH and they both did a much better job!
6. The type options... honestly I think I may need glasses now having TRIED to read some of this stuff... I assume their copy setter (is this the right person) has never heard of leading? The letters were a point short of overlapping and with the big square serif font used it was just plain hard work especially if the text was white in a colour box! I am assuming they never looked at the mag off the screen.
7. Finally I think that the magazine assumed their readers were either thick or just simply not interested in reading anything with any depth or substance... either that or the writers just aren't up to the task of producing a truly informative magazine that goes beyond what you would find in the leaflets in your doctors office.

It's a pity really 'cause considering the WH team most likely chose this form of revenue earning because the exercise/health bandwagon is such a popular one at the moment- it is because it needs to be- they had the opportunity to make a real difference to your average kiwi woman who knows the basics of healthy living but wants a bit more... some real meat to sink their metaphorical teeth into. They have fallen sorely short. I recommend you don't waste your hard earned cash.

Finally I read the Happiness project blog most days and found this recent post very interesting and quite relevant to me at the moment.

Watermelon

It's good, apparently.
♥