03.31.08
A morning in ED
It’s one way to spend a Sunday morning. Would much rather have spent it sleeping in, or even doing housework.
I got up first to get the breakfast ready for the Mr’s – Hubby does not often get the chance to sleep in, mainly because I do (me not being a morning person and all that). Almost immediately I felt a pain in my chest, which is a wee bit familiar now. I’ve had it twice before. The first time about 3 1/2 years ago, the last just before Christmas. Both times it has been assumed to be indigestion. both times I have had teh ambulance called to take me into hospital because the pain was really that bad. Both times before I have felt pretty bad at having to ask them to get me because I’m sure someone out there probably needs it more. In all three cases, the Ambulance teams have been wonderful in reassuring me that I am not wasting their time.
Yesterday, I took the indigestion remedies that I was prescribed last time almost as soon as the pain came on. To no avail. So I made that emergency call again. And told the kids that they needed to eat their breakfast.
“No, Mr 6 it does not matter I made the milk hot instead of using cold milk. Just Eat it.” “Mummy is in a bit of pain, could you please stop crying over the status of your breakfast.”
“Mr 3 could you please unlock the door to let the amublance people come in.” “Yes, mummy is really that bad.”
“No, I will not make you a new breakfast.”
“Ummm, Hubby, you might need to get up.”
It’s good to know that life will indeed carry on as normal despite the health status of Mummy. 
I was seen pretty quickly by the ED staff – probably because I’d called earlier than I had previous times and the pain was still coming and going. I even remembered how to breath through it so that this time I didn’t hyperventilate. Yay me!
This time too, I wasn’t given indigestion medication and made to wait it out. This time, although the tests showed nothing specific (actually, nothing at all) there was mention of Gallstones or some kind of colic. This alone is good because somewhere, I know it isn’t severe indigestion – it’s not something I suffer from normally. I’ve been referred for an ultra sound and hopefully that will pick something up. I’m positive it is nothing serious, but I would like to know what on earth can cause so much pain – and definitely prevent it from happening again!
Anyway, all is good for now. I came home completely wiped out and spent pretty much the entire afternoon sleeping and dozing in bed.
On a much Happier note, it is my forum buddy’s Hannah’s birthday today. Happy Birthday Hannah – hope you are spoiled rotten as you should be 
03.29.08
Smiley Saturday on the 29th
Smiley Saturday is Lightening’s brainchild and you can see here what it is all about. Feel free to peruse the other Smiley Saturday’s – or even join in too.
Today is wet and grey looking. A bit of a shock after the absolutely positively superb weather we have had for ages and ages now. But it not cold… definitely able to smile about that.
So this week’s Smiles are pretty straightforward:
- Going to SplitEnz with Widdleshamrock on Tuesday night. (I did see on the news headlines that their NZ-wide tour started in Auckland last night. Nevermind the fact that they had played already in Christchurch and Wellington. I was about to rant about the usual perception from Auckland about where exactly NZ begins and ends… except I also know I have many good cyber buddies who happen to be Aucklanders – and they at least know better!)
- Having Little Bro and his girlfriend staying for a few days. When the weather was so amazing they could not believe they were here in Wellington. Meh, it’s like that here all the time!
- Watching the “Big Game” last night – and watching of course the best team win. That particular clash is always fraught in this household. Hubby is still in the misguided belief the Crusaders are the 2nd best team in the competition. And after last night: “He-heh” (a la Bart Simpson and friends) is all I have to say on the matter… out loud anyways!
- Finding I still have chocolate left from last weekend. Wooo-hoooo!
- Finding I have some time to myself while Hubby watches the 7s and the Mr’s are playing with new guns (there were no light sabres left at the $2 shop!). I might just do a spot of creating….
- And going to dinner and a movie – or something like that – with the Shamrocks. And Anja – we haven’t warned the authorities yet. Would be nice to have a bite before they’re on to us!!
So, tell me – what are YOU smiling about?
03.28.08
Bucket List
Yes, the title is from the movie of the same name. Hannah and Janine put up four prompts at Scrapbook Essentials for the month for our Book of Me albums. Some girls have done all four, but I have done just this page. The concept behind the Bucket List is pretty much the same as in the movie: to list five things we want to have done before we shuffle off our mortal coils.
It’s taken me pretty much the whole month to think abut this, because there are a lot of things on my mental To Do list. Some of them are as simple as ensuring I don’t eat all of my easter eggs in one go today.
The interesting thing that I noted as I was making my list, pretty much all of them involve travel of some kind. I wonder if this is because I’ve always had the travel bug, or if there is some other reason I’m not aware of. Some things that didn’t quite make the “Top 5″ are to see parts of New Zealand I haven’t been to; to go to Waitangi on Waitangi day; to visit family and friends overseas and spend time with them; to climb Mt Everest. Actually – that last one – that’s not on any list of mine at all! 
What is on my list:
- Take Mr 6 (and of course Mr 4) back to Belgium as this was his birthplace. Show him around where we lived etc. And while we’re there, explore a bit more of the places where his Oma and Opa lived.
- To go to Gallipoli on ANZAC Day.
- To see and explore parts of Europe that I missed the first time around. Like Prague - where we were scheduled to go to for Hubby’s work but that conference got transferred because of their extremely severe flooding. Like the Alhambra – where we tried to visit but didn’t know that you had to be in before a certain time because visitor numbers are limited! Like Scotland, or other places in England. Like the whole rest of Italy. Like the rest of Spain. Like Greece.
- To take the boys to Disney. In the US.
- To Be Happy. Which actually hides a lot of things in a simple statement.
03.26.08
Split Enz
I know! You don’t hear from me for a week and then I go and make 2 posts in a day! I’m so bad!!!!
But this is a quickie. Just wanted to let you all know I had a GREAT time at the concert last night. We didn’t take cameras in because we were told they weren’t allowed. So frustrating to then see many, many cameras in there! I tried to get a couple on the phone, but you know how bad they can be!
That’s Neil on the left, and Tim in the middle-ish sitting at the piano.
Phoenix Foundation were on before them, and I have to say I was a tad disappointed with their live act. Just lacking in a bit of something: I’ve heard them play live on the radio and thought highly of them then.
Split Enz were great though – as always! Thanks so much to Widdleshamrock for thinking of me when the ticket became spare – it was a good time
Easter Weekend
Goodness me, I had an unexpected break from my blog! Just enjoying the sun and the company over the weekend and before I knew it, it’s been almost a week since the last post. So Easter. Well, I have no idea about the rest of the country but it has just been totally GORGEOUS up this way.
Good Friday was very much a relax around the house kind of blobby day. Something we really all needed to do. Every now and then you realise how busy you get and that you need to just stop and recharge. That was what we did. Don’t think I got out of my PJs until just before lunch! And then it was so that I could ensure we had some Hot Cross Buns sorted out for lunch.
Saturday was still a relax day, but this time we headed out. Just went for a tiki-tour drive and ended up in Porirua for a bit. Had lunch there and then as we had the Mr’s bikes in the back of the car, we stopped at their favourite park and did some biking and playing. mr 6 likes to head on over to the skater park. That’s where the bikers and the skaters have ramps and hill and jumps and all that sort of thing. He’s pretty cautious on it when there are a lot of kids using it, but like to do his circuit. Usually speed and a few hills are included. Mr 4 whips around the outside on his trike. Being a newly acquired skill, he is really enjoying the buzz of riding.
Sunday we had decided we would all go to church. Not really a regular occurance for us but Mr 6 has been wanting to go to Sunday school like quite a few of his school mates. The church up by us is a popular one and one that I would describe as being “modern christian”. I’m not sure which demoniation it comes from, but not one of the more “mainstream” ones like presbytarian or baptist or catholic. So, we decided that instead of the church that the family all attended as kids and the one that we would normally have gone to, we would go to the one much closer to us. As we parked nearby and headed across the way, the bells were ringing in the clear air.
I wasn’t expecting any form of children’s church at this service because it is one of the main ones in the religious calendar and assumed that there would be no special time for the kids. I was wrong! Mr 6 headed of to children’s liturgy and had a great time doing the crafts and things that were laid out for him. The church was a full house (which I had expected given it was Easter) and Mr 4 was a bit put off by all the bodies so he chose to stay with us. The next time I’m sure he will go off happily enough.
Afterwards, we hung around a bit and the Mr’s played in the adjoining school playground like most of the other kids. We had a quick biscuit and a coffee. The thing that struck me most was how familiar it all was – different church, different time – but still the routine of chatting and drinking I remember from my days at Sunday school at Iona in Christchurch!
From there it was too nice a day to ignore so we headed home, packed up a very quick picnic and headed to Days Bay. Hubby packed the “banana boat” (the mucking around kayack). It was great having some time in the sun to kick back.
After that, it was time to go home and have our hunt with our friends the A’s. We did a hunt last year and I was thrilled that they could come again – it’s so much more fun to have more kids doing the hunting! And even better to be sitting around afterwards chatting and enjoying the sun.
Later that night, I went to the airport and picked up Little Bro and his girlfriend. The day was more hectic than I realised – yet plenty of time to chill and enjoy. Gotta love those kinds of days.
Monday was just as glorious as the previous days. I cannot believe how spoiled we have been this summer – I know the farmers are having a rough time of it, but I just love it!! So back to Days Bay – it is our favourite place to take visitors on a gorgeous day. The cafe we intended to have lunch at was closed so we had to go to the upmarket one… and the bill gave us a fright! To recover, we wandered across the road to the beach – and the Mr’s played in the water… Mr 4 stripping right down to his birthday suit! They had a blast! The bikes were still in the back of the car so we went back across the road to the park and played there for a bit too.
Little Bro (in red) and Hubby playing with the toys
Little Bro is finally believing me that “You can’t beat Wellington on a good day”!
03.20.08
Di Hickman Sketch March 19
Todays sketch seems to be a fairly simple one – yet plenty of variation from the card sketch girls.
And here is my version:
Don’t forget to let me know if you use the sketch for one of your cards… I want to seeeee!
Has anyone else been taken by surprise by the earliness of Easter this year? I knew it was coming because my diary and calendar both tell me so. But somewhere along the line it just hasn’t felt right gearing up for Easter just yet. Today I realised that I better get on and get some chocolate goodies while the Mr’s were occupied with School and kindy. the last couple of years we have had an easter egg hunt with good friends M and C. Need to talk to Donna to see if we can do that again – having more than two kids searching seems to make it a whole lot more fun.
And it is at this point I own up to being a bit PC on it all. It’s for my own sanity really – I simply cannot handle the whining that I know will come if someone has more eggs than someone else. Yes, that’s from my lot – give you two guesses as to which of the Mr’s is more likely to do this! So, once all the eggs have been hunted, I make them all tip them out and then we share them out evenly. I normally manage to get a few photos of the hunt – I’m hoping that this year I will get a few less “Builder’s Bum” shots!
This year too we will have my brother and his girlfriend up and stay for a few days. Looking forward to that. Mind you, I think he’s a bit on the wuss side: he arrives later on Sunday night and therefore misses out on all the hectic and perhaps fraught moments of the day! But it will be good to catch up with the little brother.
Not least because he will find out he will be babysitting on Tuesday night… I’m going out to see SplitEnz. Oh yeah!! I never even thought about going to the concert until Widdleshamrock told me she had a spare ticket. I’m so there was my first thought! Luckily Little Bro and girlfriend are here for a few days so me skipping out on one night shouldn’t be too hard on them. The fact they get to feed and put the Mr’s to bed could be a different story. I will tell the Mr’s to be on their best behaviour. I will.
03.18.08
Birthday Boy!
Thank you to everyone that sent birthday wishes to the newly Mr 4. He had a fab time. His older and supposedly wiser older brother still has a few issues to work through. Like: “It’s not all about Mr 4!!” and stomping off in tears and howls of protest as he discovers someone has kindly sent the exact thing Mr 6 has always wanted.. Um… firstly, yes indeed, the day was all about Mr 4 – and secondly you might be lucky enough to make it to your 7th birthday and drop hints. Might be lucky enough would be the operative phrase.
Sheeesh!
Anyway… the fun stuff.
Mr 4 had the choice of a train cake or a number 4 cake (both out of the Australian Womans Weekly cake book). In the end, he went for the train. Fine. Worked out what I needed to get and having decided I was not going to bake the cake myself (sponge cake from Countdown) all I needed to do was collect the neccessary items from the cake decorating shop in town. So off me and the Mr’s headed on Saturday morning. To discover the decorating shop had closed down. Ummmmm…. stunned mullet! 
We recovered and managed to make do and come up with items to use at the supermarket: phew.
Next, the request had been put in for a red train. So I couldn’t use the proper food colouring I hadn’t been able to get so I got stuck with the Hansells. And a lovely, pastel shade of PINK! Not quite what me or the Mr had in mind. I added some blue – and we got a purple train. “It’s OK Mum, I like purple” Good on you Mr, you’ll see in your next birthday
Cake is made and put away for the night. Roll on the actual day.
Opening the family presents over morning tea, and enjoying having Uncle D there to make a bit of a fuss too. Seriously enjoying the envious tantrums and meltdowns of the older Mr…… NOT!! Oh man!
And on to the party. I’ve schooled myself on the benefits of having so many people not at my house after a few years. The fact we have a really good community centre is a god-send. But it’s just hard waiting for your guests to arrive….
Those masks were fun to make – we had those instead of party hats. One small tip: try to keep fingers out of kazillion degree hot glue. That hurts a tad!
But once the party guests arrived, we turned the party on its head and had the food and cake first. Hubby had a band commitment and he would have missed the candles and the song and the cake otherwise. So it was fun – and all the candles were blown out in style.
Once the clean up was completed and we all went home, happy but tired, it just left one last thing for Hubby to do. Put up the swing set. This was the big thing that Mr 4 had been asking for for some time. We got one swing on it before ourpartied out minds said “enough!”
Mr 4 told me in bed that night that he had had a really good day. Have you clicked he is a wee bit of a charmer yet??!
The final excitement was nothing to do with birthdays. We had to say farewell to the visiting Uncle D. Or, “My Uncle” according to Mr 4. Mr 6 was disappointed not to be able to come out to the airport as well, but he got an afterschool playdate out of it so that was OK. We picked up Hubby on the way through town and escorted Uncle D to the airport for one final round of lattes and cappucinos. Would love to think it won’t be long before we see some or all of the US contingent again, but the truth is, it will be a while.
So hopefully Uncle D is safely back in Memphis – and his ears are no longer ringing from the early morning sounds from the Mr’s.
03.15.08
Smiley Saturday time
Smiley Saturday is brought to you by Lightening Online and the letter C. For “Cool!”
That would be because there have been lots of cool things happening this week in this house.
- Like Mr 3 jumping and splashing in the pool with his swim buddy, G, and giving me great big wet hugs and telling me “I love you, Mum” before jumping right back in. Who can resist a kid like that??
- Like Mr 6 getting 100% in his spelling test again this week. And being really proud of it.
- Like giving Widdleshamrock and friends something to smile about for a couple of hours (days?….weeks???) Who knew a bath could do that for you?
- Like seeing another small turning point in some of the hard stuff in life and knowing you are on the way back.
- Like finding a cool wooden word to decorate. And I will share when it is done as requested
- Like taking part in a Cyber Crop at Scrapbook Essentials – and managing to chat AND work on some projects! And being amazed at the girls that took part in the “Hour to make” challenge. Sheesh those girls are AMAZING!!
- Like seeing love and support being shared among friends that need it.
- And like getting ready for a 4 year old’s birthday party. Yes, Mr 3 will become Mr 4 tomorrow. And for the first time I’m doing a non-themed party. It’s all about the fun and the friends and the cake. Gotta have the cake!!
Well, that’s my smiley week. Now, gotta go and get some more of those party supplies.
03.13.08
Simple pleasures
And some retail therapy make me a very happy girl
This morning (after some housework was completed, please note!) I nipped over to Spotlight in Porirua. This is because my fellow crafty pal Beverley was spending some time there demonstrating for Fiskars. After being teased by all the loveliness of Heidi Grace and Cloud 9 over on that blog, I have been bemoaning to poor Bev about how much I wanted to get my hands on some of the papers.
I was a bit more than a wee bit excited to be told that some of the gorgeousness had arrived in store and was being put out while Bev was demonstrating. A wee bit on the eager side, I even helped them put some of the papers out. Heaven only knows if I put it in the right place, but I got me some papers! And rub ons, and stamps. I know: I was in heaven! I wonder if there is a self help programme for gorgeous paper addiction that I should be pointed towards?
But then, just as I was about to head to the checkout, my peripheral vision (which is very excellent – especially in situations such as these) spotted some wooden words. Now, pretty much every crafty girl I know has had a word that they have decorated for yonks and yonks now. But I somehow always seemed to be behind the 8 ball in being in the right place to obtain a word. So I was thrilled when I spotted these little numbers.
I love the small scale of them – perfect for posting I think. Yep, I got some other words for a couple of little girlies I owe birthday presents to.
Now, to find some time to get them all looking pretty…
PS: If you get a chance to get down to one of the demos taking place, I can recommend them
03.12.08
7 Things
Ummmm I did this tag some time last year. Can I just copy and paste those in? No? Darn!
Right, so thanks to Bettina and Widdleshamrock, here are 7 more weird things about me that you probably didn’t know – and possibly never wanted to know.
- I live near Widdleshamrock. Darn – she told me that wasn’t weird enough to include!
Ok….
- I have Goldilocks syndrome when I’m going to sleep. I can’t be too cold or too hot. Usually this is managed by sticking one foot outside the duvet.
- I tried to manage my addiction to marshmellow easter eggs by putting the packets I bought last week in the freezer. I’ve spent the last week realising just how good frozen marshmellow easter eggs are!
- I have to make my tea with freshly boiled water. And then let it sit for 10 minutes or so to cool down.
- I find it annoying to realise that although I have just sent someone an e-mail, it could be DAYS before I get a reply. I can’t help but push the refresh button futilely in the vain hopes there might be an immediate response. I mean – they should be sitting there just waiting for my message to pop into their inbox…..
- I love having my toes done – feet massaged etc. I know this will totally skeeve someone out because she hates it pretty much as much as I love it
- I received a personal letter from David Lange when I was in the 3rd form after I wrote to him in support of the Anti-Nuclear policies. During the very brief period that Geoffory Palmer was our Prime Minister, he came through my checkout at the supermarket I worked in on a Friday night. Seems even PMs need tomato sauce with their fish and chips. I think that might qualify me for PM.
- I find it really, really difficult to let a ringing phone go through to answer phone. It’s like the other person will know I’m there and ring back so I might as well pick up now, right?!
Ok – I know I’m meant to tag another 7 people but pretty much every one I know with a blog has done this. So, if you haven’t… feel free to share and consider yourself tagged.
