Saturday, October 4, 2008

Going further, being nicer, and sisters these days...

Lots of stuff going on this week in the Stockley House.... First of all Jake was here for three days and I have NO photos... mainly because they spent a lot of the week holed up in Kieran's room playing on the computer and making Lego stuff interspersed with the occasional bout of running around the garden with balls.


Will's life is currently punctuated by waving and heading off into the distance. This includes out to the front doorway to eat shoes whenever possible. Out to the kitchen to play with plastic, chase Ruby, or finally make it to that fascinating catfood dish (hasn't done it yet!!). Down the hallway... main target here is Kieran's room as he only needs to cross the threshold to find a bunch of yummy stuff to chew. If K has remembered to close the door then he'll go all the way down fortunately bypassing the toilet and bathroom for Merenia's or the scrapbooking room. I think the motivation for this is balloons. Merenia has a number of balloons in full view in her doorway- fortunately they are latex so Will should be ok with them... unlike rubber balloons, which POP into lots of little bits, latex ones go down slowly.

This exploration does have one disadvantage though....


.... hmmmm sisters these days!

While I'm on the subject of Will I'll take the time to mention a few things I haven't already...

If you happen to be in the market for one, DON'T buy one of these Highchairs they are CRAP...


One of Will's fave toys is a ball... any ball will do, big or smal,l he likes them all... this could be a part of the whole hero worship thing he has going on with the other ball loving boy in our house. This (below) is his best trick....

It's pretty cool, and very smart, his hands and legs stop the ball from getting away the only thing that holds him back is when he chucks it over his head accidentally...

Talking about Hero worship.....


Noooooooo, nooooooo, please Will not you too....


I just liked this one, Kieran was being very suspect in a corner getting his Jamas on the other day. I thought he just trying to hide his "Shiny Hiney" but no, he was putting both legs in one pant leg... bad mistake... Have you ever seen a one legged guy get a Wedgie??

On Wednesday we went to Butterfly Creek... thanks to boy genius Kieran's efforts at the Science Quiz last holidays we had a pass so I only had to pay for the girls. It was way cool....

I love this idea these are those ball shaped tissue paper lamp shades that have been around forever made to look like jellyfish...

Will thought the fish were mildly fascinating...


But the butterflys were a huge hit!



He was practically killing himself to pat small furry animals...


He was bemused by the train...


But the big kids liked it


The butterflys loved the pushchair and the toys...


And the new top I got from Kieley (Thanks babe... it's in the wash now goddamnit!)



While we are here and Merenia is being kind to her friend Alyssa. I'll tell you a story from dinner last night.
Background: Merenia has a TV in her room for the week and she's been watching old family videos.
M: "Kieran, a long time ago when we were little, you know we used to be really nice to each other. And we weren't mean like we are now." (personally I don't think they are that mean to each other but anyway...)
K: "Mumble, humph"
M: "Well I think we should go back to being like that, and just be nice to each other."

I'm not sure if Kieran replied cause I couldn't hear so well from the other room (Merenia is naturally loud) but I asked him about it later and he said.

K: "I just think she's changed a lot since yesterday. It's like she grew up while I was away or something" (He was at Jakes for a sleepover)




I always think green is my favourite colour and then I am reminded that it is SO red...



After Butterfly Creek we picked up Sylvia from the airport and came home. Wednesday was also my birthday and I got lots of good lolly type stuff, a magazine and Outrageous Fortune seasons 1 & 2 on DVD. My two best presents were the one that hasn't arrived yet, and a framed set of postage stamps... yeah I'm turning into a philatelic geek but how cool are these! Kieley framed mine for me too, I know!!!!! way cool!!!


If you look at the candles you can see that I'm either 53 or 35... take you pick I know which one I feel like lately. :-) Why 2 cakes? Les bumped into us at the supermarket and was a little bummed as he'd wanted the cake to be a surprise. I said something about knowing that he was either getting a Choc cherry gateau or a Pav... he'd been thinking of a Chocolate Mud cake all day... so 'cause his heart was set on it...


We had Meatballs for dinner, my current fave, with rice and vegies. Kieley came and we drank some alcohol and talked rubbish for a long time it was great!

Digitalmax had a special last week so I got caught up with my processing it's only 732 photos. As Sylvia's friend Lisa said "No pressure or anything" She's a scrapbooker too so she gets it.

Yesterday Will got a very early birthday present which was kind of surprising, but it's all good because with father's day and my birthday recently he's well up on the present opening gig and the resulting cloth book from Delwyn, Blondy and Joe is way cool... Thanks guys!!


We took Sylvia up to Scrapcamp on Thursday and caught up with some of the crew which was cool and then Merenia, Will and I caught up with more yesterday when we had to take the long way home due to the Motorway truck crash (it doesn't take much to break Auckland I tell you!)

And betwixt it all I made this.....


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Eight: Abundance

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Friday, October 3, 2008

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Eight: Potential

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Round-up~ September

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

Creating Keepsakes, NOT where is it postie??? HUH huh???, Healthy Food Guide, and a little more of Next than usual.

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

The obvious...All Saints, Outrageous Fortune. And the not so...The netball- Go New Zealand! Summer Heights High- Saturday nights on TV1 it's like a school based version of Kath and Kim made in Australia can be VERY funny!

What special days did I celebrate?

Father's Day and My sister Finn's 10th birthday.

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

Father's Day Pressies for Les. A Sam Hunt Poetry Anthology for my Dad. And $20 for Finn... kid sisters are hard to buy for. A water pistol and a bag of lollies for Logan.H's birthday. Mini albums to all the coaches and team managers. And a lunch order Moosie for the kids on the last day of school.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

My brain... I'm so tired

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

Gardening with the kids. Watching Kieran's last Hockey game with my Dad, Kieley, Les, Will and Merenia.

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

Healthy Food Guide Butterscotch pudding, which I think will be on www.healthyfood.co.nz when the new issue comes out. Mars Bar Rocks YUM!!!!

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Craft Robo- I know I said that last month but this month it actually turned up. We got the Odyssey at the start of the month and a new multifunction printer. And we got a DVD-rom drive for the 'kids' computer so we can get 'Mr Rugby 08' off the lounge computer!

What were this month's disappointments?

Not getting as much done as I would have liked. The ongoing and building frustration of not being able to get the house to what I call 'maintainence point' and then have a balance of cleaning, scrapping, playing and relaxing literally has me in tears some days and is slowly driving me nuts! Not getting to play enough with the craft robo

What were my accomplishments this month?

Getting the kids garden's planted and some flowers planted around the roses. Planting Will's Rose and doing some scrapbooking stuff towards Christmas. Getting up to date in sorting my photos (I was months behind) and getting them all uploaded and printed while digitalmax was having a special! Let's not talk about how much that cost or when I am ever going to find time to scrapbook these photos.

Anything else noteworthy to record?

Will Crawling, clapping and waving, Yay!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

300 and Eight things: Surprises


I missed my 100th post and I missed my 200th post but this is a great day for the 300th!

This is the first of a set of 8... I was going offer explanations for the photos and why I'm feeling the stuff that I am but;

  • it all seemed a bit poxy
  • it's the school holidays so I'm busy
  • I really wanna go scrap
  • the kids want the computer
  • the baby needs me
  • I'm hungry
  • etc
So here's the thing I've been wandering around the yard lately and taking a whole bunch of photos whilst also thinking about stuff that makes me happy, like....













Note I like small surprises... like unexpected flowers in my garden, early flowering wisteria, beauty where you don't expect it, and airplanes you don't notice till you look at the photos. Surprises that just happen and aren't for me as such. I'm not big on surprises for me. I don't like direct spoiling where I am face to face with the person or persons giving the surprise... quite simply because I don't feel good enough to deserve it... but then I think a lot of people feel self-conscious like that.

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