I’ve been working a few extra hours here and there at work.  With the job I started at the beginning of July, the role is a new one for them – and when I looked at the description when I applied, I had a feeling the role would need more than the 20 hours each week it stated.  It is proving the case.  I was asked if I would consider working a few extra hours just the other day.  I found working 25 hours on a permanent basis meant a stretch of other things and often meant that some of those things didn’t get done.  As always, my procrastination foibles are there, but that extra committed 5 hours really did impact on what I was able to do and what I wasn’t.

So, work and I reached an amicable agreement.  I’ll stick to the formal 20 hours per week arrangement, with the ability to work and be paid the additional 5 hours as and when they are worked.  I’m hoping this means I will get to take on some of the tasks that I am meant to be doing but find I run out of time to even think about, yet keeping the ability to get to the supermarket, have lunch with friends on occasion, sometimes get to the Mr’s open assemblies at school.  I like that work is prepared to work with me on this – it isn’t an either or question

****

We’ve finished winter sport season – without any of the accolades that were suggested might be coming the Mr’s ways.  Both Mr 10 and Mr 7 have had a really good year.  In one case, I personally found it hard to hear week in, week out about how great one of the Mr’s had improved, how good he was playing – yet every week someone else would be given the player of the day, or finally “most improved”.

I know I’m the mum and I’m biased, but I know how much he had improved – and being told each and every week how good a game he had seemed to back my view.  But week in week out I kept my mouth shut as the kids who got the trophy – again – because they scored x tries. I didn’t want to be seen as being one of “those” mums.  Still, it is a fine line between being proud of my boy’s acheivements and wanting others to acknowledge the same thing, and avoiding the whole pushy stage mum thing!

I’ll be satisfied with the fact that I am proud of how much he improved, how much fun he had, and the fact they both said they loved playing this year.

****

We got part of our summer holiday plans sorted out.  Great team effort with hubby finding a holdiay home in Momorangi Bay for a week (thanks Marram Trust!) and plans to get to see my Brother, SIL, and new niece in Christchurch.  I found a motel reasonably close to them, so we will be a few days in Christhchurch too…. not nearly as long as I’d like, but probably enough to enjoy a fleeting visit with the fam and hopefully avoid experiencing the aftershocks. For all my bravado, my gallows humour about earthquakes goes OK up here in Welly where we haven’t had to seriously experience things to any serious degree.  I’m not sure I’d be as calm as the rest of the fam have had to be should something out my usual experience actually happen!

Having said that, I’m really looking forward to getting down there – first time anywhere near Christmas time that I’ve been anywhere near the old stomping ground since we got back from Belgium eight years ago!!

****

And on that note – that’s all for a glimpse of what we’ve been up to.  I was going to tell you about our fun weekend in the city with the navy and all that boys stuff – but as I said… no chance of pics tonight.  Guess that means I need to get back here real fast then, hey?! 

Yet, in among the blurriness, I think I managed to catch some special moments.  Like this:

The WONDER of snow!

This is going to get picture heavy so I’ll just get on with it….

"look at the snow dad!"

"no, LOOK at it Dad!!" LOL

The snow wasn't actually settling yet, so the best place to collect snow for your snowball?? From the wing of the "teenagers" cars!s

Family Portrait

Duck! Neighbour N has just attempted to hit Mr 10... having been ambushed by Mr 10 a number of times!

Our house at dusk... after a little more snow fell

First attempt at a snowman... well, snow blob! There really wasn't enough snow on Sunday!!

Snow buddies - I didn't see Neighbour boy or Mr 10 the whole Monday afternoon!

Mr 10 and Neighbour Boy spent much of Monday afternoon in the new snow that coated the back deck - and made Mr Snow - a portable snowman on a baking tray so he could be moved under the verandah, out of the rain, so he wouldn't melt!!!

Tuesday after school - thought I would try to get some shots of falling snow.... so far the attempts hadn't been great

This is the same Kowhai - just 20 minutes later! With our local Kereru trying to find shelter

That same roof and tree - just 20 minutes after the snow started falling!

Just loved the look of our tree with the snow

Almost forgot to do snow angels!!!! Mr 7 had come and gone - he loves the snow but there is simply no insulation on his body and he wanted to get out of the cold!

Looking down from the top of our cul de sac....

Looking back up to our house

...round our corner.... that turn at the top of our street was so slippery, people were leaving their cars several streets away!

our last snow man - Mr 10 did this largely on his own... and was so disappointed a large chunk of snow fell off the torso before I got the camera on to it. That bottom snow ball... it lasted until Saturday before finally melting completely!!

I haven’t shown pics here, but one of the nicest things was how many meighbours were all out – especially on the Sunday at the first snowfall – and Wednesday.  Such a special time seeing as this is such a rare event… On the Tuesday our elderly neighbours came out to join in where they could.  He pulled out some toboggan runners that were around 40 years old, another neighbour had some wood in the garage so the old was added with the new and a sled was created!  Not quite enough snow depth to actually make it work – but still it was fun trying!!  Those guys now have a sled to use the next time snow gets anywhere near us!!

OH, and Mr 10 just told me that I completely forgot to tell you all that at school on the Monday, they were allowed to go out to the field and have a massive snowball fight, and Mr T(the caretaker) found a whole lot of bags so that they could slide down the big bank at the back of the field.  Super cool!

And then the rain set in. Again.

This is how the Under 10 game looked being played at Trentham Memorial Park:

Mr 9 was also captain for the day, which he loved.

Sasha has proven her worth as a mouser … there is a really freaky mouse experience from a few months ago that I’m not going to share here because having shared it at work, it really did freak someone out and I felt bad.  Suffice to say, it left me with a feeling I didn’t enjoy for several days after!

Anyway, I assumed that being a good mouser wasn’t necessarily leading to a bird hunter.  We have lovely natives around our section quite a lot which I just love.  So when I saw the dark feathers through the hall I was pretty devastated.  I couldn’t work out what had happened to the bird though and assumed it was a little sparrow that had been eaten.  Our last cat, Sam, did that in his peak.

And then I walked into the laundry.

More feathers.

And behind the door………..

OMG!!  The body.  It wasn’t a native – thank goodness… but man!! It was quite a large bird. And it was in my laundry. And it was dead. 

I have no idea how Sasha got the bird into the laundry through the cat door – and clearly the poor thing put up a fight.  I cleaned up the mess, said a few things and popped the bird away.

WHAT am I going to do to stop our little cat from murdering the natives???

The Mr’s have been at it again – more sporting success!!

Two weeks ago: Mr 7 got player of the day in ripper rugby.  He is playing so well at the moment.  The week before was a little frustrating because the other team wasn’t working with getting back onside too much and three times he got so close to scoring tries when he was ripped by an offside player.  It was a sorta big deal because normally he’s the kid that runs and runs, gets his hand on the ball a little bit but that’s about it.  To see him so close to scoring was so neat to watch.

The following week, the opposition was a bit better at getting back on-side – and he scored two tries, a handful of seriously good rips stopping tries and had some really good runs… hence POTD.  He LOVED it.

Last week was another great game for him – the coach actually remarked how he was totally into the game in the last few weeks.

Last week was also cross-country time at the school.  During the training sessions, both of them had been looking pretty good.  Mr 9 came fourth – and will be representing the school in the Year 5 zone run.  He was so pleased – having just been pipped into one of the spots last year, plus beating the boy who normally is always ahead of him in the past years.

Mr 7 got first in the Year 3 boys race…. and was so pleased.  Apparently he came in first by quite a way.  I’m still hunting out the photos for that one   Thankfully there was a mum up there at the time that race was run that knew I’d want pics

I’m really hoping that I can get a day where the workload is light enough to let me leave early on the day the zone races are run.  Fingers crossed!!

This time was a whole lot more fun – (although the first two days of the previous statement don’t qualify as THEY were fun being spent with my good girlfriend, Claire, who was living there at the time and they were definitely awesome times!!).  This time I was part of our Stampin Up team that was staying in a fabulous apartment right in behind the convention centre… and DFO.  Stampin and shopping – in Melbourne… simply BLISS!!

I tried taking a photo from our 29th floor looking over the fab nightscape we had each night.  It was through the window as well, the weather was slightly more akin to Invercargill that Ayers Rock if you know what I mean…. (sorry Mrs Frizz!!!) and I wasn’t going to venture out on to our balcony.

On the first morning it was a bit gloomy – but I had a wonderful experience of noticing a hot air balloon rising from that space by the shortest high rise slightly to the right of centre…. and then noticing it wasn’t alone – at least two others were a bit higher in the sky and about to disappear from our view as we looked right.  I didn’t grab my camera as it was one of those moments you wanted to see rather than miss while you grabbed the camera!  Amazing though!

Now I did take a PILE and a half of photos but I can’t share them here… a lot involved upcoming products and sneak peeks that we demos simply aren’t allowed to share before certain dates.  But I can tell you I am totally excited about what we have coming up.  And the clever people doing the presenting and showing us how to use stuff – impressive talent. And that would be a massive understatement.

With it being my birthday weekend (a certain milestone may have been reached…..) I was pleased to have some great company to share the weekend with.

And to finish off, we had the awards dinner where we all got glammed up.

L-R: Judith, Sharlene, Me, Emma (NZ Country Manager), Liz, and Broni.  The lovely Laura was also staying in our apartment but stepped out for this pic…. Laura is an aussie from Adelaide and was sooo much fun.

I also came home with a lot of items from momento mall (the “shop” of convention souvenirs…. which is pretty fun) but the best thing….. FIVE pairs of shoes none of which was full price thanks to DFO.  Heaven much??!  Somehow, I managed to get enough stuff into my Trelise Cooper countdown bag to take on board and had EXACTLY 23kg to check-in.

All in all…?  It was definitely a Happy Birthday to me.  Think Hubby will definitely insist on a party rather than a convention weekend next time

We had a second day of fog hanging around the hill today… finally burned off around 4-ish while the big Mr and I were out shopping.  It’s amazing how clothes that have been slightly big, looking good and don’t appear to be in the drawers for that terribly long suddenly look short on the arms or need to be invited to join the shoe!!  Thankfully both Mr’s are trackies and t-shirt boys… and there were still some sales on.  Makes it really easy to shop

This weekend I’m also prepping for a trip away next week.  A trip out of the country even.  On my own!!  Woo-hooo!  I’m off to Melbourne for the Stampin’ Up! convention and to say I’m looking forward to it is a fairly large understatement!  I am trying to get through the laundry, plan where the Mr’s go aftershool and how they get to rugby practice — and what might be eaten while I’m away.  This is on top of working out how little I can pack (so I have room to bring STUFF home!!), getting some swaps done (I’ve finally decided to stick to a plan!).  I do the domestic planning in order that things go relatively smoothly while I’m away – with the primary motive being that I will then be able to go away again!!  The other prep is the procrastination side coming through well and truly.  You didn’t think that I’d give up that title did you???

Speaking of procrastination, I have several cards I need to get to the post office tomorrow… there’s a few sitting here waiting for their trip out the right person!  Sigh. I never get better at that part of the process!!  There is always hope though.  Hopefully the recipients will at least appreciate I was thinking of them at a certain point… and forgive my usual lack of timing!! ops!:

I haven’t taken a photo of the card for mother’s day that Mr 7 did at school during the week.  I knew something was coming because he was really excited about it and kept telling me about some things that he had been working on.  As always, I LOVE it… but he got a real buzz at being able to give it to me as he received a certificate for the “character writing” that he did to go inside it.

“Mum.

blue eyes.

brown wavey hair.

fancy rosey red cheeks

Pretty.

works.

likes books.

gets take aways.

cooks all our food.

Awesome.”

And then… “Dear mum I hope you have a very happy mothers day.  love from —–”

Totally love how these things give you an insight into what kids think

And that’s probably enough Saturday night stream of conciousness for you.

OK, so I’ve been missing in blog land again for a bit. Whoopsie.

February:

School restarted, the boys are happy with their teachers.  Year 5 for Mr almost-10, Year 3 for Mr 7.  School touch team was signed up for again, and Mr 10 also decided to sign up for French club. I never even knew it was an option and he decided off his own bat to do it. 30 minutes once a week.  He’s loving it.

March:

School swimming happened over two weeks and Mr 10 finished first in 25m freestyle and second in 25m backstroke.  He got to represent the school in the Western Zone competition.  Unfortunately he didn’t finish first in either of his races, but he was so pleased to be able to get to represent his school.  I was definitely one proud mum!

Proof he does concentrate!! Mr almost-10 listening to the teacher before swim races get started.

Pre-race routine…..

I have to admit – he has a nice technique.  His swimming teacher this year is working on fine tuning some things – and maybe by next year, we’ll get into the inter-zones.  That’s his goal for now.

We also had part 2 of the athletics nights.  The boys both love this – although some of the summer nights were definitely a little chilly this term!

And then after the medals get presented…. it’s time for  a brotherly noogie.  What IS it about boys and the need to give noogies??!

Summer terms seem to also mean Touch Rugby.  The end of season this year seemed to bee a very sudden shift from Summer to Winter.  The final touch game was at 4, and the first rugby practice was at 5.  Yep, we had 30 minutes between seasons!

Oh, and not to forget a fun birthday in the middle of the month.  Mr 7 decided he wanted to go back to laser strike – and have a star wars cake again. Seeing as the star wars cake from birthday number 5 was a relatively simple number, I decided I wanted to jazz it up a bit.  In order to achieve this, I knew outsourcing was the way to go…. thanks to a wonderful friend that sure knows how to bake a cake!

If you have a need (or a want!!) for a special cake, definitely check out I Want…..  She’s based here in Welly – but has been known to ship cakes all over.

Oh, and I’m not allowed to forget to tell you how much the Mr’s still enjoy playing lego.

On the crafting side of life, I’ve been pretty remiss. March was going to be LOAD (Layout A Day) … I think I got two done!  Epic fail!!  LOL  I did however manage to start and finish a knitted baby jacket for a colleague, get February and March cards out mostly on time.  Definitely good stuff.

I’ve also picked up on the OLW – One Little Word – c0ncept this year and have been doing the year long class with Ali Edwards.  I’m really enjoying it – instead of having new year’s resolutions which pretty much fall over the second they are made, OLW seems to stick. Especially with a means of documenting in.  So my word is FOCUS. As in Focus on the things that I need to – that mean something to me.  I like that the class is fluid – no actual deadlines, but prompts to keep you thinking.  I’ve not quite completed some, others I need to just pull together.  I think it will be really neat to look back at the end of the year and see how well I’ve keep this word in mind throughout the year.

And that is almost an up to date catch up.  I know that I’ve left April – but the battery on my laptop is going to stop shortly.  And it will hopefully mean I get back on here sooner rather than later!!

So I hope you in blog land have been good enough for the easter bunny to leave some treats – enjoy your Easter weekend.

And then I got a shock…..! No summer pictures really. Goodness I have been a slacker.  So….. here’s the summer so far.

I’ve used the gallery to make it quicker to upload – feel free to click on any pics to get a closer look.

We have fun at Splash Planet, our trip to the gannets at cape kidnappers (where our tractor got stuck!), beautiful sunset overlooking ruapehu from ohakune, a bike trip for Mr 9 and hubby to the now disused viaduct, and the big accomplishment of the summer for hubby: the tongariro crossing with his brother. Weather wasn’t great, but they were very pleased.  And this weekend just gone: the scout mudslide!! Actually our mudslide was quite clean thanks to water being pumped directly from the Hutt river. The Mr’s LOVED it!!!!

Never fear - it wasn’t me sneaking around being preggers or anything like that!

Instead, we’ve got a four footed member of the family. Meet Sasha.

You’ll have to excuse the pics – she’s a zippy wee thing!

Mr 6 has been missing our old pussy-cat Sam after he died suddenly when we got Angus a couple of years ago. In recent months, we realised that this “missing Sam” thing was actually a big deal. The way big, rolly tears would silently fall down his cheeks when looking at photos of Sam were a bit of a clue. So, Hubby and I resolved that we would get another cat a little sooner than we originally planned.  We told Mr 6 that the new addition would be his to pick – but that he’d have to wait until all our holidaying was over and school was back in order to let the cat adjust.

He was patient and was very excited.

So on Sunday, we went to the SPCA, armed with internet profiles of cats that fitted the kind of cat we thought would fit in with us.  I fell in love with a beautiful tabby

but she was a bit younger than what we were looking for. And Mr 6 was busy with another cat so wouldn’t be persuaded to mum’s point of view! She was in hot demand – and will be going home with a lovely girl looking for a companion.

Mr 6 was very keen on either Sasha or Maggie – I thought Maggie was a bit doo-lalley and although had been fostered with a dog previously, I suspected might have been feline trouble with a capital T.  I was therefore very pleased the final decision went Sasha’s way.  Mr 6 even loved the name so much that he decided to keep it the same.

She seems to have made herself at home very quickly.  Angus is very curious – if not a little out of joint about a new furry member of the family. His contact with her has been limited for the moment, although they are in the same room at least in the evenings. Sasha will hopefully worm her way into his doggy heart as well.