One year ago today....

It's hard to believe that one year ago today we were saying our vows in gorgeous Rarotonga. To celebrate we are going out for dinner tonight. Kids have gone to their dad's and then we have the weekend to ourselves. Don't bother calling me this weekend ;-)

This is called avoidance...

Should be writing my last assignment for a paper which is due in next week, but instead my fingers just took upon a mind of their own and went surfing to sites that are certainly not related to confidence intervals and p values!! There seems to be a pattern here, doesn't there. I am very good at procrastination. Would definitely get an A+ in that paper!!

Anyway, I have just booked a holiday for Tony, myself and Hannah on the Gold Coast in November. She turns 12 next month, and has had a crap year so as a special treat we decided to take her to the Gold Coast. No brothers or sisters, just us. So I have been perusing accommodation options, riding the rollercoasters, swimming with dolphins, and shopping up a storm.

While the cat's away, the mice will play...

I am beginning to dread going to work on the weekends we have the kids. Some kind of accident is usually just waiting to happen or invariably there will be some sort of mess to clean up. Is it because I never had brothers and am just not used to all the dare-devil stuff, rugby and mud or have I just got an adrenaline junkie for a husband?

I came home from work yesterday to find this...





Okay, the kids were bored so he made them a Burma Bridge. The fact that they needed a ladder to get onto it meant it was reasonably high off the ground! The kids apparently had a blast and showed me all the photos they had taken.

All of the kids had a go except Nick who was a little scared, but he did try later on after some encouragement from his stepbrothers. Actually it was more along the lines of "Nick ya big pussy. Even Sarah did it!!"


And when you are done walking across it, why not just hang around for a while....



And even the youngest member of the family had to give it a go...

Metamorphosis

From this.....

to this....

Spring is sprung

Spring is sprung

The grass is riz

I wonder where

The birdies is

Spring is officially here. The daffodils have finished blooming, fluffy white lambs are bouncing around, and my cherry tree is in full bloom.
Had a burst of energy, attacked my vegetable garden and planted some more vegies. Replanted my bedraggled old pots at the front door with nodding pansies, sprawling petunias and upright snapdragons....spring colours of yellow, pink and blue.

You can feel everyone's mood lifting as the days are getting longer and the weather warmer. Scarves are gone, jackets left at home and more people out walking.

And look at our new addition...




His name is Casper and he is 10 days old. It is Hannah's lamb for Pet Day. Madam Sarah wanted one too, but only if she didn't have to do any work or feed it. Sigh! Needless to say, she hasn't got one. Anyway, he is very cute and already following Hannah everywhere.

You never know what's around the corner....

Source: Peter Drury, Waikato Times

literally....

Was on my way to meet Tony for lunch yesterday and wondered why traffic had slowed to an absolute crawl. I soon saw the fluorescent glow of the police vests and figured there must be an accident on this very busy roundabout. Oh well, I had time to spare, so wasn't too bothered. As I got round the corner, this was what I saw!! Apparently, a van had accelerated into the side of the bus for no obvious reason and it had ended up on top of this car. Luckily there was no-one in the car, but wouldn't you pissed off coming back to your car and finding it under a bus!!

Mud, mud, glorious mud!!

Boys, rain, mud, rugby ball...need I say more. This was the sight that greeted me when I came home from work today. The other two were off getting cleaned up before Mum got home!!!

Wellington was fun

Source: glutnix

I have always liked Wellington with its diverse culture, great cafes and restaurants and unique setting. A mix of old and new. History and modern side by side. By world standards it is a very compact city. The central city is easily walkable and Tony and I spent many hours walking, trying new cafes, drinking coffee, taking in the city and watching the world go by. Such a varying mix of people from the bohemian to the business workers.

Found some fantastic second hand bookshops that were very conducive to plonking oneself down in a comfy couch and lazing the day away with a book. Managed to score a couple of cookbooks by Nigella Lawson that I have been hankering after for a while. Tony came away with an armful of books too, much to his delight.

Unfortunately, I had to go to my university course on Monday and Tuesday, so my days became filled with confidence intervals, p values and ratios. Tedious stuff, but all very necessary in understanding medical and nursing research. Managed to break the tedium one day and met Lisa for lunch. Stayed the night with another friend Cath and her family which was loads of fun.

Tuesday was my birthday and Tony gave me 4 new charms for my Pandora bracelet. He has good taste that man! Better than the concrete smoking frog my ex husband gave me one year. I am sure some of you remember that!!! No wonder we divorced lol. The four new ones are the money bag (cos I am always shopping), the ball with the hearts (cos he lurves me), the hedgehog (cos I am such a prickly character at times!) and the handbag (cos I love bags and shopping)

Rain rain go away...

Source: Giuliag

So this is kind of what our front door looks like now...It seems to have been raining non-stop for like forever. However, I am not complaining...it was only a few months again we were in the stages of a drought and having to buy water in. How ridiculous is that? The one good thing about the rain means that I have finally been able to get some computer time. That coupled with the fact that we now have wireless access (OMG, how did I manage without it before?) means that I have been spending loads more time on the computer.

Cooking is my new stitching. The poor old needles have been gathering dust for the last 3 years and it is unlikely I will ever get back to it as much as I was. On the other hand my other passion is cooking, so I have been trying out lots of new recipes and finding new blogs to get lost in. I get so inspired by posters and new recipes and have got lots of willing tasters, so try to make something new every day. I have now made a new blog dedicated to all things food related.

Off to Wellington for a few days with Tony. I love Wellington and could easily live there if it wasn't so coooold. This is as far south as I get. I am too much of a sun bunny to ever move further down the island. Anyway will be great to go there for a few days. Tony thinks we won't be leaving the hotel room, but I have got news for him. There's some serious shopping I intend to do!!

Procrastination

I am very good at delaying the inevitable. I have an assignment to write for one of my post-grad papers and it is due in tomorrow. I don't think my house has ever been cleaner. Went shopping yesterday. Made pumpkin soup. Caught up on some blogs. Now updating my own blog. I don't usually procrastinate so much but this is a research paper and it really is tedious. Unfortunately it is one of the core papers for my Master's.

Took the bull by the horns and went back to points counting to lose a few kilos. Don't want to get as skinny as I did 3 years ago (that was too skinny and I looked gaunt) but would like to move about 10 kilos. It just kind of creeps on. Tony is a big choccie and licorice eater and we got into a bad habit of sitting down with a coffee and a block of choccie and a bag of licorice for supper every night. I'm not talking little block....I am talking king size!! Anyway a friend popped by the other day and has been going to Weight Watchers. She looked fabulous. She inspired me to get off my chuff, stop buying choccie and get back into sensible eating. Not that my eating was ever unhealthy...i just like to eat lol. So I have been very good this last week. Weigh in is tomorrow, so will do that then go meet a friend for coffee and a big hunk of mud cake afterwards!! LOL

In the ICU where I work, there is an acting charge nurse position for a year to cover annual leave, time off etc. I applied and got it for the coming year. Looking forward to it. Love working on the floor and the good thing about being a charge nurse in ICU is that you still get to work on the floor. In many other areas, the charge nurse spends more time doing admin work and is removed from clinical work.

No photos as my memory stick is full. Need to buy another one.

Two posts in 6 months

Not bad huh!! Oh well, I just am not destined to be one of these bloggers who can blog every day! I do read a bunch of blogs every day, but again am one of those lazy readers who never posts a comment. Anyway time for an update....

Work has been incredibly busy for the last 5 months, but has quietened down over the last 2 weeks. I have changed to 12 hour shifts so work from 7am to 7pm. It's great...sounds like a long time to be at work but those extra 4 hours actually go pretty quickly. It has cut down on my travel by 1 day a week and I get to spend more time with the kids. On the days I work it feels like all I do is work and sleep but it is great having 4 or 5 days off in a row afterwards.

Doing a couple of post-graduate papers this year and got to go to Wellington a few weeks ago for 1 of them. Caught up with Cath who now owns Countrystitch. Great to see my baby still living on. Still didn't inspire me to stitch though lol

Max is our new baby and it is just like having a new baby too! We started puppy pre-school last week and it has made such a difference. He can now come, sit and go down! Now if he could just learn the command for stop eating slippers and shoes he would be perfect!!



Feijoa season is upon us again and I found this wonderful recipe by
Linda...a divine chocolate feijoa cake. It has just come out of the oven and I am about to tackle the feijoa chutney next. I just wish the season was longer.

Catch up continued

Ok waking up to another glorious day here with not a cloud in the sky *sigh*. Kids are still on their summer break so have another 10 days before they go back to school. As I said we have been spending most of it at Mt Maunganui. Every day we always walk round or up the Mt as it is affectionately called. The photo is of grumpy tired kids who are hanging out for an ice cream! It's a 3.5 km walk around and there is always something different to see whether it be seals basking on the rocks, paragliders at the top, seagulls and their babies, fishermen, cruise or cargo ships coming in and out of the harbour......















We are getting a new family member as well. A little bichon frise. He is only 6 weeks old in this picture and we don't pick him up for another 3 weeks but the breeder sent us these piccies. Isn't he just adorable. With Tony's warped sense of humour, he wants to name him Sooty or Midnight!!!





I am not stitching at all and haven't for months and months. In fact it is probably about 18 months or so since I last picked up my cross stitch. However, I am spending lots of time with the family, I am in my garden and I spend a lot of time cooking and experimenting. I am continuing with my university studies this year as well as working so guess those needles will stay gathering dust for a bit longer!!

Catch up

Gosh hard to believe half a year has gone by since I last wrote. Along with laziness, an almost dead modem that has now been replaced and summer, computer time has been somewhat limited. So now with a renewed interest, I am posting again.

I am now an old married woman. We had a fantastic time in Rarotonga and the most amazing wedding. So glad we took the kids. I have a video of it to upload but for now photos will have to do. I loved Rarotonga. Tony and I both intend to go back soon sans children. The photos don't do it justice...it really is like something off a postcard. It was very relaxed and just me, Tony and the kids. We used a local photographer and wedding celebrant and got married on the beach.

At the start of the ceremony



Taking our vows



The family after the ceremony



Sarah...looks so angelic...if only you knew the truth!



In the photographer's garden



Been spending loads of time at the beach. We have had the most glorious summer. We have just had 32 days without rain and amazing cloudless days. Unfortunately the garden and lawn are suffering though.

Will be back later to update some more. Got some things to do now.