06.29.08
Making the most of the weekend
Yesterday we headed out for a bit of a Sunday drive. We haven’t done this very much recently because of the price of petrol, but it seemed like a good thing to do to make the most of the extra bit of time we found oursleves with thanks to Junior Rugby being cancelled yesterday.
After a quick visit to Hubby’s mum in the home, it was approaching lunch time. Seeing as we were kind of out that way, we decided to head on out to Short Straw cafe. This is one totally, fabulous family oriented cafe for both summer and winter. It’s out in the wops a bit, which definitely adds to its charm. The Mr’s enjoyed their kid’s platter, but most of all really enjoyed playing out in the sun (very weak, wintery sun, but sun nonetheless). We had managed to get the perfect corner couch seat so I could enjoy their energy from the inside, while remaining cosy and warm and rugged up myself. See…. being a bit sensible here! 
I’m so glad we did. Because to day, the weather is just S*&%. Truly. A leak that we get in the lounge only when it is really blowing a southerly and driving the rain in re-emerged. Oh joy. Apart from catching the drips, and the clean up after, it’s not so bad but still. But before we noticed that little issue, we had some family fun.
Mr 6 has his birthday on Wednesday and because I am trying to avoid doing full-on parties every year, we decided to take just 3 friends to laser-strike then get some food afterward. All was well and good – except the fact that the ONLY time I could get was 9.30am this morning. Too darn early in real life! It meant too that all the friends were asked to skip church, which they did so we were lucky. Hubby and Mr 4 made up the numbers to 6 and it made for a good game to watch on the little screens. (I personally don’t enjoy laser-tag so was happy to sit it out.) From the looks on all their faces and the excitement that oozed out of them at the end, this was a very good boy activity! Even Hubby worked up quite a sweat from the running around!
We then went to McD’s for some replenishment and after another indoor run-around session at their playground, headed off back home. I decided the weather meant we still had an hour of being cooped up together before the boy’s families had finished their activities and came to claim the boys, so I popped in to pick up some rental Playstation games. Boy, those Buzz games are great for these kinds of days! We also picked up a Ratchet and Clank game (….do I sound like I know what I am talking about?? Because I don’t!) Between these things, some jig-saws and some lego at home, this has been quite the party. Come pick-up time, we had a total of 5 boys all playing pleasantly and quietly doing various activities in the warm lounge.
I swear I did not drug any of them!!!
Oh, and yesterday, before the fun and games of today; I managed to get an hour or so to myself. And whipped up this:
You might remember the photo from here. I’ve combined two challenges to get this page done, and I have to say that I am pretty pleased with teh outcome. I used ScrapboxNZ June sketch plus the Friday night challenge at Sketchbook. The FNC was to combine patterned papers from various manufacturers – and not to worry about clashing colours. I used Making Memories, Imaginsce and Scenic Route – and I’m surprised at how well they worked together. I also had fun with a bit of handstitching, some stamping, and of course my threading water punch.
06.27.08
So where are the photos?
Yeah, I know, I said I would be putting photos from the Rotorua road trip up and I haven’t. Well, they are still on the camera and I haven’t loaded them on the PC yet. It’ll happen! There are some cool ones on there. I’ve just been giving myself too much computer time for a change as I get back into routines. Routines that include study and housework and all that necessary stuff that needs to be done. Oh, and organising a little something for Mr 6 who has his birthday next Wednesday. We’re not doing a full-on party thing…. I told him when he turned 5 that the parties would be few and far between. Instead, it looks like we’ll be taking a couple of friends to laser-tag for an hour or so. Nice and easy!
But back to the photos…. my SIL very kindly sent some through via e-mail this morning and seeing as that doesn’t involve me running backwards and forwards up the stairs with the camera and everything else, I CAN share a taste of our adventures.
The Zorb. The wet one. At first I thought they were mad, but they put warm water in there in the winter – and it means that the boys could go in. Apparently it is like a cross between a water-slide and a roller coaster. And apparently, it was all that. Both boys LOVED it!! That’s Mr’s 6 and 12 in the one rolling down the grass.
Thanks for all the get-well-soon wishes…. all very gratefully received. Apart from being tired, and really, really over the coughing, you’d hardly notice I was not up to speed. With any luck the anti-bugs and the steroids will kick in and things will be back to normal soon. I hope so because there are a few fun things I want to get done before we head away to Christchurch in 10 days time. I can’t believe the trip has come around so fast…. it was last year that we decided we would all go down and spend time with the family while Hubby was at the band nationals…. and it sure doesn’t feel like a whole year has gone by! 
Hopefully there will be more Rotorua pics up before we head off on the southern roadtrip. The poor old camera (actually, it’s the new one I’m still getting used to!) is getting a work-out, that’s for sure!
06.24.08
Under the weather but in love again
The Southerly working it’s way up the country may have just hit. It’s been a cold wind most of the day, and now it is super dark inside at 3.45pm and grim and grey and wet outside. Really wet – it’s coming down fast and heavy and vertical. Makes me want to forget the rest of the things I need to do today and crawl into bed and go to sleep.
I’ve been plagued with a cough for about three weeks now. I had a cold and thought the cough was the tail end of that – except it went on and on and on and on and… you get the picture. After promising my pharmacist I would go to the GP if it hadn’t cleared up by this week, I got a GP’s appointment for this morning. And wouldn’t you know it, I almost felt normal again. Murphy’s law or what??! I almost cancelled the appointment thinking, yep it’s just a cold and it’s finally come right. However, I thought the 9.30 appointment may not get a chance to get filled by someone else so I might as well go.
I am so pleased I did.
While the symptoms don’t seem to be much at the moment, there are signs that something bronchial is awry. Possibly Atypical Pneumonia. I need to google that and find out what that actually means! So now I have some anti-bugs and some other dose of something else to help the lungs work. Dear oh dear. I do like to do things properly!! I’m going to start rattling while I walk soon I think!
But while I was waiting for the pharmacist to fill the prescription, I was wandering around the mall and found a new shop has just opened in the mall. http://www.kikki-k.com.au Swoon!!! This shop is full of the cutest note pads and folders and pens and stationery stuff. I had Mr 4 with me and he was playing on the floor with his gumboots while I was extolling the virtues of the next notepad I laid my eyes on. It’s like a giant stationery cupboard…. the coveting began when I used to be in paid employment and I’m sure it led me into the scrapbook habit. And now it’s come full circle. I’ve already pointed out to Mr 4 the cute bag, the neat pen and the notebooks (yes, plural!) that Daddy can buy me for presents. And of course I just HAD to leave with something….
I’ve been wanting a cute recipe file box forever and this is sooooo much nicer than the rolodex office ones people kept trying to steer me towards. So now all those recipes I have lying around will be neatly written up and filed safely away. The best thing too, is that if YOU give me a nice recipe, I can get you to write it out in YOUR handwriting and have that keepsake thing going on too. I might even decorate the cards if I so desire.
Of course, this will all be done from my sickbed…. gotta have something fun to do!
06.18.08
Wooo Hooooot Wednesday
Several things cross my mind – Janine’s Wooohoooot Wednesday gives me the chance to celebrate the small and sometimes not so small.
- The weather today is glorious. After a cold, wet and blustery Wellington day yesterday, it’s great to be walking too and from school without coats and jackets. Wish I’d known it was going to be a good day and I might have got some washing on the line. Now that would have been a woooohoooo moment!
- Getting to take my SIL and J back to the airport. I love driving to the airport – it just feels great. And then having a coffee and a yummy Wishbone muffin for morning tea, well, that’s just fantastic. Even better is when you are driving along in gloriously sunny, still Wellington. Yes, people it (no wind!!) happens at times and I love it!!!
- Mr 4 beginning to eat whole apples. Not ones that come in the more expensive fruit pouches that were the mainstay of getting serves of fruit anywhere near him. Whole apples that can just be grabbed by himself out of the fridge and eaten. Whole apples that are sooooo much cheaper – and not from China!
- Fantastic roadtrips to Rotorua, with a mix of adrenalin activities, sheep and boiling mud etc.
- Discovering that the drive to Taupo via Wanganui is indeed a much, MUCH longer drive – but oh so pretty.
- Getting some study done. Even a little bit.
06.17.08
Tagged again!
These tags seem to be doing the rounds again. I see I got tagged by Widdleshamrock – who spelt my name wrong!!!!!! Geesh, some friend, hey??!
Ten years ago: was June 1998. Hubby and I were finalising for first big OE: 5 weeks in the US. I have a feeling that I may have been in Sydney round this time too for work. My passport was already in being updated and on the Friday I got told I needed to be on the plane to Sydney Monday. The Department of Internal Affairs were very good at sorting that bit out for me.
Five things in todays ‘to do list’:
1. Take Mr 4 to swimming. Then Mr 6 to his lessons later.
2. Give out thank you cards FINALLY.
3. Pick up taps from MasterTrade.
4. Study. I am so behind at the moment, this is on my to do list EVERYday.
5. Drop off the late CJ to Beverley 
Snacks I enjoy: Kapiti herb and garlic cheese on crackers. Hummus and crakers.
Things I would do if I was a millionaire:
Pay off the mortgage, check out a holiday home site in Waikanae, get a winter tropical island holiday sorted.
Places I have lived:
Invercargill, NZ
Christchurch, NZ
Wellington, NZ
Antwerp, Belgium
Wellington, NZ
And now to tag people……I’m going for a mix of old and new scrappy friends…… go for it ladies, you know you want to 
06.15.08
Show and Tell
In my last post, I had time to say hi and then repack to head off to Rotorua. Man, that was a fun trip… Look out for those pics. I have a feeling it may be a little photo heavy!
But, before I move on to adventure and fun, I finally got the chance to download my layouts that I did at Scrapcamp. Putting them on here, I discover that I didn’t get a photo of the page I did for my SIL – I gave that to her the other night to take home. I was quite pleased with it, and so was she, so that is all good.
This one is for my BOM. I decided to take 12 photos on the 12th a-la something from Cathy Z’s blog, which she got from someone else. It’s the weekend away in Waikanae back in April. {Vicky and Keryn: this is what I did with those strange photos I was taking!!}
This one I was intending for the NZ Dares challenge to include 5+ event photos. It is Mr 4’s 3rd birthday from last year. I didn’t realise I was a week out on the deadline – but now I have one birthday page that was waiting to get done completed and in the album. See those candles? I made them! Di at scrapcamp was polymer clay expert and showed us how to play with this ultra cool stuff.
The Halloween one was finished off thanks to some fantastic rub-ons from Helen. Plus Di is going to send me a pumpkin button once she has made it. Awesome!
Who says you can’t put flowers on a boys layout?? The journalling still needs to be added, but I had fun with this. It’s a Jack from Ann’s style from sometime last year – so it was good to finally get it sorted out! And that tooth? Yep, another embelly made for me by the lovely Di. And that lovely ribbon? Clear plastic ribbon from Maya Road that Beverley included in a little birthday gift for me. It’s so cool. Oh, actually, I think those flowers were from Beverley too.
Another set of photos that have been waiting in the wings for a while. Although not quite as long as the easter photos from the year before! I really enjoyed using autumnal colours – seeing our easter is at that time of year!
These photos are actually more recent ones, taken over the summer. It was one of our many forays out to Eastbourne – the one where Hubby’s band were playing, and the boys were racing around on their bikes. Such good fun. That little bike embelly was in a little package that Danice got from the fine bin. Some super cute buttons. Except it was bright pink and lime green. Danice had the very clever idea of changing the colour using a permanent pen…. hello red slick writer! Thanks heaps Danice!
And do you spy the threading water punch used on this layout? I knew I’d love that punch to pieces and I got to play with it a bit thanks to Sandra. I now have one of my own thanks to Meg…. yay!! *doing happy dance*
This photo was again from last year. I knew I wanted to scrap the moment and describe how I felt to watch Mr 6 growing in confidence and yet want to keep him close to me. And then I found this paper. Perfect!!!!
And this layout is the last one I did at camp. Started late on the Saturday night. Like real late. Completed on the Sunday morning just before lunch. It is a complete copy of a layout I saw in an online gallery, and I wish I had kept the details of the person as I would love to give credit. However, I’m loving my colours and how they are working on this. And those Cloud 9 Rain spots?? I think I’m in love! I was in search of the right alpha to use for the title, and then remembered the little pack that Danice gave to me as a RAK. They were more than perfect – when they were stuck down, they matched the sky colour and the bling cardstock pretty much perfectly. Total glee! I need to say Hi to Kerry Sue here too – my stamp in white ink was getting lost on teh bling and she noted it needed some popping. So out came my glaze pen – and yeah, it worked much better.
And in among the chatting, the fun, the lei-ing (you had to be there!) I got a few simple cards out of the way too. Again, silly moi, I haven’t got photos. Imagine a printed photo of all the attendees at Mr 4’s party back in March playing pass the parcel. Then imagine a small flap of cardstock with a thank-you stamp on the front and that lovely threading water punch down the opening side. And that flap of cardstock covers about a third of the photo when closed – and stands the photo up nicely when open. Yes, very simple, but at long last some thank-you cards to give out to the party goers.
Towards the end of camp I was sitting back and taking a look at the finished pages. I noticed something. Pretty much every single layout has straight lines. Perhaps I have a more linear style than I realised. Interesting….
Anyway, that brings me to the end of this show and tell. I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope I get to get onto MORE scrapping now that I am back home. You should see the photos I still have!!
06.09.08
Return from Scrap Camp
I never realised how the term “Scrap Camp” might sound to those that don’t scrap. I learnt that people give you funny looks and wonder if you are part of some sort of fight club. I quickly dispelled those misgivings!
I had a fabulous time at the Pohangina scrap camp. It was great to catch up with familiar faces from the last camp I went to back in May last year. Plus there were some new faces and friends to be made. Scrap Camp is always a hive of activity as people spend their time working on some new pages. I was again amazed at by many – the talent that you get to mix and mingle with is mind blowing. I was quite pleased with the pages I got completed. After quite a stressful lead-in and organising everyone at this end, I ended up with exactly an hour and a half to pack my scrap stuff, by clothes and my bedding. Needless to say, I pretty much just threw in every thing I had to some very big containers and headed on out.
I got to drive up this time in daylight hours – a benefit of being able to arrive in the afternoon. I got there just in time for dinner – and that is one of the huge benefits of this camp: great food cooked for you. Yum!!
Last year, I spent almost all the time scrapping – glued to my chair and working. This year, I spent just as much time chatting and socialising as I did scrapping. Now, that probably comes as a surprise to some that know me!! 
But I also went for a walk with Kris and Lou – the surroundings are so gorgeous it would have been a shame not to get out and about for some fresh air.
While I was gone, the Mr’s got to have some fun with Hubby. Mr 6 in particular got a special treat as I bought tickets to the test match before I left. He, Cousin J and Hubby all went to the game: the first time for both Mr 6 and J. Thankfully I had gotten covered seats and everyone was bundled up so the weather wasn’t too much of an issue. I was watching it on the big screen while I was at camp and hoping they weren’t too miserable. Far from it, it seems!
Oh! and even earlier in the day, Mr 6 was awarded the “Best and Fairest Player” trophy! He was super pleased with that! When I called home just after lunch, the boys had just arrived home – Hubby was told to make sure the photos were taken!!
And today, I am unpacking, washing, tidying and re-packing. Me and the Mr’s are going on a roadtrip to Rotorua with the visiting Aunty and Cousin. Should be fun! J wants to do all sorts of adventure stuff, so I am hoping that the weather is OK enough to let us get out and enjoy some of the activities on offer.
In the meantime, here are a couple of camp shots. Hope everyone is warm and dry!
06.03.08
Some snippets from life
It’s been a while hasn’t it?! I feel like I’ve been neglecting my little blog while I get on with things in real life. Yet when I think about what it is that is being got on with, it’s just the usual everyday bits and bobs. There just seems to be more of that than usual. Or something. Something works for me! So rather than trying to come up with a seriously intelligent and enlightening post, I’m going to go with snippets from my head. And that could be really scary or possibly slightly entertaining. Or something! LOL
I had a wee shopping spree last week. I first saw the slippers over Mothers Day and couldn’t get them because they didn’t have them in my size and the colour that I wanted so that was that. Then last week I spotted them again and they had my size in the red. They had to come home with me. And I’m loving the bag you get to take them home in. They keep my toes warm and toasty and that is a great thing – cos they are THE most expensive pair of slippers I’ve ever owned.
And the boots. Well, you know I needed to have some for the muddy rugby spectator sports. And I was dreading just going with the purely practical and functional. Mainly because I have never had any reason whatsoever to don a pair of those. And if there are pretty gumboots out there, I’d much rather have them than a pair of black ones. Frivolous I know. But you just have to have some fun in life sometimes.
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Queens Birthday Scrapping. I didn’t do any. None. I thought about it. I have some mental pictures of how I want a couple of pages to look. I even set foot into one of the local stores down here and enjoyed the soup that was on offer. But I didn’t even take a scrap of paper with me. Really!!! Saturday was a busy day with birthday parties, family events and rugby to spread ourselves in between. So I found myself with an hour in which to pop in and catch up with Beverley and Janine and Mandy (who really needs to have her own blog!). I was surprised to see they were the only ones there – David’s soup was actually very tasty!! They were being all creative and it was good to see how they were putting some of the challenges together for various things. I spent a bit of time trying to persuade Beverley that she should run a class so we could learn to be her. I was thinking in terms of style but you know, she’s so cool that it could be fun to be her as well!
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There was a family event on the Saturday night that I wasn’t looking forward to attending. I went. And I survived…. even having a chuckle at one particular thing that happened. Thank goodness for the rugby – it was a welcome distraction. Particularly as it meant I was in a separate room from those that I was dreading encountering. Oh, and despite the hassel from the BILs that the Crusaders were not going to win (ohhhh a wee bit of ribbing about their ‘canes team not being up to the task might have occured first….. 
) even they were pleased with the result. The other result I was quite pleased with was persuading the birthday boy that he should share the yummy Irish chocolates that we had bought for him.
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I’m off to scrapcamp on Thursday. Three nights away with a bunch of mad scrappers in Pohangina. Lots to organise so I can actually make the most of it. Isn’t it funny how you can have a bunch of photos and yet still nothing to scrap?? I know I have some in mind that I am wanting to get done, so I need to make sure that they are in amongst the stack of pics I’m taking. Woooohooooo! Oh, and some baking to be done.
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My SIL and nephew are here from the States visiting her mother. Bonus is that we enjoy each other’s company and at her suggestion, myself and the boys are off with them next week for a road trip. Wooohoooo! We’ll be meandering our way up to Taupo and Rotorua and doing all sorts of touristy things. Just hope it warms up a tad….. it’s 9 degrees here today and that is way to cold to not be hibernating!
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Now, to try and catch up on some other blogs and the forum posts…..
