Christmas Day

I started out the day a bit sad, but Ross put his arms around me and told me to stop crying, smile and make the best of it. So we all did!

I still do a Christmas stocking for my boys and I have been buying little bits and pieces for a few months now - I didn't realise quite how much I had to stuff into their stocking! When they were little, I would buy cheap $2 shop stuff but now they have more expensive tastes, so I tend to buy snack food treats eg Lindt chocolate, or a new range of crackers etc.

I fetched my Mom about midday and then we all opened presents .... and I forgot to take photos! Lunch was a bit late, but it didn't matter because we enjoyed it anyway. And we had a good day too!

Me and my new coffee pot!

Tried to get a good photo of them today!

Today I have taken a boot load of mine and my mom's stuff to the dump and it feels good to have accomplished something. Little steps every day

My son

Can I tell you about my awesome son? Some of you will remember my Christmas stocking dilemma. Someone suggested that I give them money to go shopping. I suggested that and they thought it was a great idea to take $30 each and go and spend it on me

Backtrack to my broken coffee pot - it lost its handle about a year ago and has irritated me every single day! I went looking at new ones and the same size one had gone up nearly $30! But the next size down was $90. I decided not to buy it

Twice my older son has asked me for the $30 to go shopping. I said to him that maybe what I should do is take the $30 each that I would have given each of them to shop and just add in another $30 of my own and I could have my new coffee pot.

He went one better - he said the two of them would each give me $15 towards the coffee pot so "my" $30 would not be necessary. I came home with the pot today and he took it immediately to his bedroom as he said that was for Christmas day!

What a silver lining in all this mess that surrounds my life! Time for me to focus on my awesome sons

Can't wait for Xmas Day!

There we'll sit for the first time ever: my mother without her husband; me without my husband and my two teenage sons without their father or grandfather.

How am I going to put on a smiling face and pretend that it's all going to be okay? I wish I could just magic the day away

Moving forward

Today I joined the gym! Yes, you heard right ... fat, unfit Jenny joined the gym. I will go for a half-hour session every week starting next Wednesday. It's a bit of a different gym in that they have a few people at a time, personal train you, and then move on to the the next person. I am very nervous as I haven't been in a gym for a hundred years. I don't even have any clothes or shoes to wear!

Then, I'm going to take charge of my eating and drinking. Cut back on food, not eat it just because it's there or because it's nice. And cut back on drinking - two or three glasses or a bottle a night is not good for me. There - I've said it - I drink a lot. Except tonight - I may need to drink tonight. I'm scared that I may even want to drink too many sleeping tablets tonight too

Right now, I am praying for an outcome that I want, an outcome that will make me happy, an outcome that will take work, trust, and effort and love. Please pray for that outcome for me

Never

Never have I felt so broken hearted before.

Actually I wish I could die

I never realised that there could be so much pain in my heart; not to mention the anger and hurt and bitterness I feel.

I am torn to pieces and ripped to shreds

How can I love someone yet hate them so much at the same time?

Will the hurt ever go away?

Christmas Cupcakes

I decided I wanted to make red cupcakes with white icing for morning tea at school ..... mainly because I found theses really cute sprinkles: red and white minty tasting candy canes; and red and green trees. I was going to use a red velvet cake recipe but then decided that I could just use our family chocolate cake recipe. The original recipe calls for a whole bottle of red food colouring! The mixture very red and Colin, who tasted it, said that he expected it to taste like strawberries

When they came out the oven they had darkened up a bit ... because of the cocoa

Iced! I bought some icing whitener but ended up having to use all of it for this icing mix. I am going to try another brand next time. Aren't the sprinkles cute?!

Cut open - a rich deep red in a chocolate cupcake

Can't wait to try one!

A while

It's been a while!

Last Saturday Ross and I worked as electoral agents in the General Election. We had to be a at our polling booth at 8am to set up. All the furniture (except the chairs) are cardboard and slot together really well. Then we were set to open at 9am. We had a steady stream of voters all day - just over 400 voted in the 10 hours. Some of those were special votes and that was my job lots of boxes etc to complete and I had to remember to do all of that! At 7pm we closed the door and then started balancing our issues pads. Then we had to count the voted and we had to balance. We finished around 8.30pm and left at 9pm. It was a very interesting day

This morning I was enjoying my usual weekend treat - coffee in bed while I watch the TV and surf the net for a bit when my neighbour knocked on the door to tell me that my Dad's Mitsubishi that Ross drives had been broken into! As had her car. The nuisance kids broke the little triangular window at the back and opened the glove box to see what they could find. Nothing of course! So that's another $150 - $200 on top of the servicing earlier this week that cost me $357

And the cherry on the top - a nice big earthquake tonight! We heard it coming, the house shook, stopped and then started shaking again. The big red star shows where it was. A nice 5.7shake 60km down but was felt up and down both Islands. We are fine: couple of TVs moved, some small things fell off the shelves, and a pot fell off the pot stand. We are fine but got a fright - it's the worst I've felt in 15 years in Wellington

Next year must get better for me!

More Scrapping

Yesterday was our s/b day and I'm very pleased with what I did. I think I am almost finished all my digital photos so now I have the hard job of scrapping baby/toddler photos! Why does that somehow seem so hard for me to do?

Anyway, the first one is about watching the RWC final on TV "with" friends around the world. We commented on FaceBook all the time and this particular "party" got to 335 comments! It was such a fun evening sharing with my watching and friends

Then I have now completed all my Rarotonga photos: this one is about the two whales we saw one morning

This next one is the scenery - both mountains and sea. It's hard to think that Raro has such high mountains though

And the final bits and pieces. I love to scrap postage stamps, moeny etc. This Cook Island $3 note and the shape of the coins is so interesting
I'm not sure how clear this one is; might have to delete it and take another one. It's the photo shoot we did when my BIL was here and I have put lots of journalling on the back
And then of course 11:11am on 11/11/11! Journalling yet to do
Another great day, and my friend Tracy said that I was almost my old self. Onward and upward!

11.11.11.11.11

Eleven minutes past eleven on the eleventh of the eleventh month two thousand and eleven!

It was morning tea time and I was in the staff room so took a photo of my cell phone!

Finished!

My China album, that is. All journalling complete, pages sorted into a reasonable order and it's in its own red album. All it needs is a photo in the little opening on the front cover.

I couldn't make myself get out of bed this morning - too depressed, Finally at 12.30pm I dragged myself out and had a shower. Then I did four loads of laundry, filled a fairly large box of stuff for someone else to love (aka stuff for the garage sale). Then I settled down to scrap.

I started on my China pages and did all the missing journalling. Then I sorted it. I am happy with it and Colin loved looking through it.

I have also filed a few more l/os but have more to do.

I did feel as though it has been a productive day and I feel better for it. Tomorrow I have to do the groceries and help sort garage sale stuff out. Maybe I'll have time to do some more scrapping

Brother-in-law visits

I haven't seen my BiL for nine years so it was wonderful when he said he was coming to visit. This morning we had a photo shoot.

Boys with their uncle

Boys with me

Two boys

Tonight's the Night!

▒▓██ A █ L █ L █ B █ L █ A █ C █ K █ S ██▓▒

Well, the Springboks are out, so now I'm supporting my other team

I am so pleased with my bargains I got today! The cordless phones have been dying so I went looking for new batteries today. To replace the batteries is almost as much as a new set of phones which aren't cheap. I saw some at Harvey Norman marked $69.99 for three handsets. perfect! When I asked for a box they were marked $109 so I said I wanted the $70 ones. The kind salesman gave them to me at $70 with another 15% off as well! I bought two sets so that everyone can have a phone in their bedrooms as I'm sick of looking for phones only to find them in the bedrooms

Then I got 40% off on curtains so now I have new curtains for all my living rooms

New background

I'm trying a new background in honour of the All blacks!

Also a new Blog title :-(

Scrapping on Saturday

I really enjoyed my day scrapping on Saturday - it's the first one in the last three that I have really felt motivated and got something done

This one is the photos from June when my Mom and I went on the Seal Safari - journalling complete too!

This is the RWC game I went to and enjoyed so much. The journalling is written but I want to print it on to a transparency and place it over the flag
These four are from Ross' Formal - I have ordered white glitter Thickers for the title as the red ones I had were more pink than red. I don't know how to do the journalling - white pen onto the black c/s; strips of white c/s; or ?? The strips of c/s are silver and gold and rather glittery IRL which is what I wanted

So mad! Happy mail. Renovations.

Something happened today that really upset me and I felt very emotionally fragile. Now I'm just mad about it!

I went scrapping yesterday and had a wonderful day! For the first time in three months I was able to scrap and got nine l/os done! And I'm really pleased with them. Then I came home to find these three beauties waiting for me

Part of our house rearranging has been to redo Colin's room. In this photo you will see his old (baby) curtains, a duvet cover that he has been using and his furniture that we painted ten years ago (when he was five) in bright colours

Here is his new room - dark blue curtains, new net, an new duvet cover to match the curtains and the furniture painted in more grown up colours. Not to mention the HUGE tidy up that went on in there! He is so pleased with his "new" room
And my dinning room suite didn't sell :-( :-( :-( I will relist it again and there maybe be someone else who is interested otherwise I will send it to an auction house

And just forty minutes until the semi-final between the All Blacks and the Wallabies - go the ABs!

Edited to add: Go the ALl Blacks!!

Holidays!

No alarm, no school lunches, no rushing - two weeks for me to do lots of marking and start sorting my house out. I have taken good photos of my dining room suite and that will be on Trade Me tomorrow night as well as a few other bits and pieces that I've found. Once that goes, I can clean the room and move furniture; and clean and move and so on until I have upstairs sorted out.

The RWC cup here has been so exciting! Lots of people have flags on their cars and their houses. I have my flags in my class room and I should have brought them home - oh well. We're into the Quarter finals and I really hope that SA beats Aus tomorrow night! I paper pieced an SA flag so that I can scrap my rugby outing photos

Oh and today's date is 9/10/11! Unfortunately I wasn't even awake when it was 6:07:08 this morning

I have uploaded my dining room suite on to Trade Me and now I just want it gone. As soon as it goes, I can clean the dining room properly and then the dining room will become the new family room with my lounge suite in it. The lounge will then get a good clean and will become my craft area. The current family room will get a makeover and some "new" furniture and will become the rumpus. The boys don't really need a rumpus to play in any more, but they do need a space to bring their friends to. Then hopefully by February, all the re-arranging will be done and my Mom will have moved in. I am in the process of loading other bits and pieces on to TM as well.

I am starting to take charge of my life and I am feeling good!

Long week

It's been a long week this - very emotional and stressful.

The RWC is on and when there's a game in Wellington, I spend time collecting boys. One will finish about 30mins after the game does and hopefully get a train home but I still have to fetch him at the station so in total about an hour or so after the game finishes. The other finishes about three hours after the game and there are generally no trains then so I have to drive in there to fetch him usually between 1am and 2am in the morning - of course I go in my pjs!

Ross and I put our names down to play in a bowls competition yesterday but no one told us it was ALL day and maybe Sunday and we had to take lunch! Well, neither of us did too well and by the end of the day I was cold and very tired. I was very pleased when they said we didn't have to go back today! And then I went to bed at 7.30pm - it was bliss!

Daylight Saving has started and I hope that will make a difference as we have more daylight hours

My Mom bought me this cyclamen plant to thank me for everything I do for her.. It has lots of new flowers budding and when it dies I'll plant it outside the front door.

Two weeks to go until the school holidays and then I have lots to do. I want to get into every cupboard in this house and clear out everything I don't use. I also have to sell my dinning room suite (square eight seater oak with a sideboard) as I have to rearrange my house for my mom to move in. I am a bit sad about it as it was my pride and joy when I bought it over 22 years ago. And when I look at the cost of new dining rooms suites I'm astounded! I have a vision of what I want my house to look like when I'm finished but it's going to take hard work to get it there.

I also have to sell my Honda Odyssey which I also love but it's pointless having two cars and the Honda is the more expensive to run.

And then I will have to go through my house with A and sort through what each of us will keep. And that will be hard

Oh

and did I mention I love my new camera? All the photos in the last two posts are from my new camera. It was so easy to carry into the rugby as I didn't take a handbag and it's compact size meant it could hang around my neck very easily. And when I uploaded my photos, I did not have to rotate the portrait-style photos - it happened automatically!

I love my new camera!

Carlucci Land

In June I bought some vouchers to for mini golf at Carlucci Land - an 18 hole mini golf course created from recycled materials. There is lots of recycled art works in the grounds too. So creative!

Three kiwis on a branch

Looking back down - there were lots of people there today

The golf ball comes through a chute and round the tree in this wire meshing to land on the green

My boys waiting to play

Some art work with some pretty yellow flowers behind

A scorpion

A fountain

Close up of the fountain with the boys sitting half way up

Metal flowers

A crocodile

An elephant?

It was good to get out into the open air and enjoy some time as a family

South Africa vs Fiji

Last year when the RWC tickets went on sale, I was determined to buy tickets to get involved in the atmosphere. AT 9am the day the sales opened, I was online to buy the cheapest tickets I could! $66 for adult tickets and $34 for children - I bought two adult and one child's ticket. My students asked me what game I'd bought tickets for and I had to go back to check - it just happened to be SA vs Fiji. Come earlier this year and my tickets were delivered to me. Later on, I realised that I was the only one going to the rugby. Then they phoned me from the RWC office to tell me that my D-category tickets were impaired viewing seats and I was being upgraded to category A tickets at no extra cost! Now who to take? I took my colleague from work and one of the students that I each - she was so excited! Anyway, we had a great evening and here is my colleague and I waiting to go in

The Springboks and the Fijians walk onto the field

At some point during the game

More rugby

A conversion

One idiot was evicted as he was picking a fight with anyone and everyone; and one poor old man lost his footing and cut his head open very badly but apart from that there were no other incidents.

We had a fantastic time! After the game, we met Colin and went down town to find somewhere to have a drink before catching the train home. On the train coming home, Colin realised that he had lost his cell phone and he thought it was on the platform. We got into my car and drove to town and there was the phone on the tracks! It had bounced onto the concrete platform and then into the tracks and was still working! The staff at the station were great and as soon as the train left they got his phone for him

It was a fantastic night and I was not bored at all!

Weather

We had the most amazing weather at lunch time today. It started raining but the rain soon turned into hail which covered the ground making it look like snow again. The school kids were making "ice balls" and throwing them at each other! This is a corner of my garden around 4pm

A closer view

The temperature dropped from 12°C to 4°C in 30 minutes! Wellington also had 200 lightening strikes and the accompanying thunder in that time. The photos above were taken after 4pm so still a fair bit of hail around

RWC

So today is the opening! While I really don't care for the rugby, I think that having the RWC here is a big deal! Today we had mufti day (civvies day) at school and Colin went in his SA shirt and flag. At morning tea he asked me if he could go into town to Te Papa with his friends to meet the SA rugby team. I let him go! He came back buzzing! he got signatures all over his flag and was thrilled.I am supporting the RWC so my shirt has all 20 flags on it! I also made a pink crown that has "The World in Union" printed on it
A photo of Colin with the SA team in the background.

It is 6.20pm here now and I have my glass of Savignon Blanc and I'm waiting for the opening ceremony and our fish and chips for dinner to arrive. I am set for a good evening! Enjoy if you are watching in your part of the world!