Labour Weekend

We headed north (along with most of Wellington) to Rotorua to catch up with my SIL's niece, hubby and children. They arrived a short while ago from South Africa and due to job constraints are having to live split up in Rotorua and Auckland. Their little boys are 5 and 2.5 and really took to Ross and Colin. Anyway, Adrian decided we had to go in his car as it's much cheaper on fuel than my car. The kids wanted to go in my car as it's way more comfortable and has more space so they got as much as they could legitimately say they needed to pack into the car. Well, Adrian had a fit at all the luggage and the boys and I just burst out laughing. Eventually we were all rolling around laughing but we did go in Adrian's car :-( However, he did admit while we were there that we should have taken my car

All photos blurred

Please note the matching clothes and poses! All chosen by the five year old in the photo!
Ash and I scrapped most of the weekend (I did six l/os and was pleased with most of them) and the six boys watched TV and played.

We went out to Rotorua Airport where Andy does tandem ski jumps to watch him do a couple of jumps.

And then we couldn't not go to our favourite Waikite Pools.

On our way home we saw a steam train outing and got a loud "toot-toot" from the driver when he saw me taking photos

Fiskateers

A few months ago, Rebecca from Fiskateers asked for some sewing projects. I sent photos of my quilt and this morning I got an email from Rebecca saying my quilt would be featured on the blog today. Here it is: http://www.fiskateers.com/blog/2008/10/19/fiskateer-sewing-week-because-i-say-so/

Scrapping yesterday

Despite not having the photos I wanted, I still managed to scrap and have a wonderful day. KiwiScraps really is a very good venue as it has everything we need (and more!).

I scrapped Colin's school photo in my normal fashion - photo on one side of a double l/o and a pocket on the other side for reports etc. If he does some nice artwork I usually take a photo of it, print it at 5x7 and put that in the pocket too. (photo and names blurred)


Then I scrapped some photos from February this year. We went to Whiteriea Park for an evening bbq and the boys found an old boogie board which they used as a slide down the grass on the hill. I loved how this one turned out and once I've done the journalling and title I'll photograph it and upload it here. Updated - I decide that it didn't need a title

Then I did a few more which I'm happy about, but I really love the boogie board slide.

It's always amazing to me that I can scrap photos and one l/o really just does it for me - the rest are fine, but there's one that I really love (until the next one). I suppose that's the joy of the memories

Update for Trace: Angel was in disgrace yesterday as she had been chewing up too many things! Boy, she let us know that she was grumpy too - the shrieks and squawks that were coming from her!

Update to the Snapfish saga

I got two replies - one of them included an apology. They have also given me a credit for the prints and the postage. This is good but still doesn't give me my photos for Saturday. Not sure what I'll scrap on Saturday now

Can you see the steam coming out of my ears?

I am soooooo angry with Snapfish. Those of you in New Zealand will recall their 1 cent a print promotion at the beginning of October - unfortunately their website died for three days and people were not able to take advantage of that promotion. I sent two emails to them and one reply, one of the questions was "What were you doing at the time the website went down?" Well, I told them, "I was drinking a cup of coffee whilst watching the photos upload." What kind of a damn fool question is that?

Anyway, I finally was able to order my prints on 11th October and added to and subtracetd from my order a few times. Now each time you do this, you have to keep clicking MATTE or it automatically defaults to Glossy. You can imagine that doing this a few times one forgets to check the MATTE button. This is what happened to me.

On 12th October I received an email telling me that my prints would be sent. On this email, I happened to notice those dreaded words "glossy". I emailed back immediately telling them not to send those, but to reprint in Matte explaining why. Well, today, my envelope of ugly glossy prints arrived and not via courier but in an ordinary $1.50 envelope for which I paid $4.95.

I am furious to say the very least. And Snapfish do not have any kind of contact telephone number either. I really wanted those photos for Saturday so that I could scrap them. I have told Snapfish just to refund my money and I will go to Harvey Norman

Parcel in the post

Last week I got a package of BasicGrey Two Scoops chip stickers in the post. I thought it was a mistake from a TradeMe seller, but no. So who sent it? If it was you, thank you very much - you are very kind

Senz

I'm exhausted (I fell asleep in the satff meeting this afternoon)! I helped unpack a few boxes on Thurday and was then back bright and early on Friday morning to help in Donna's awesome distressing class. That for me was the best one of the weekend. Back downstairs to help at the stand again and it was VERY busy. We all went to dinner at Curry Workz in Upper Hutt and I can thoroughly recommend them.

I spent the night at the NZIC student accommodation was although simple was very comfortable. In our wing, there were 11 bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchnette area and a lounge with a TV. It was very warm in the room and I got up during the night to open the window, but better too warm at night than too cold. Only problem was some "Expo groupies" who appear to have been to every expo possible. They were wide awake at 6.30 am and shouting to each other. As another lady said, they're like kids on a tour

Back to Senz and straight into helping Trina's beading class. There was a bit of an oopsie with the materials list which had me running downstairs to get some dimensional magic. It was a cool class and Trace, Mandy and Kelly have photos. A quick early lunch and then I helped in Donna's Christmas acrylic class. I left early as we had a wedding to attend.

Sunday morning when the alarm went at 7.30am, I wished I wasn't a person who cared about commitments as it was soooo tempting to stay in bed! Off I went to help in Trina's Little boxes class, then back to the stand. At 1.50pm Andrea told me to go and do Vicky's class! There I went with nothing except a pair of scissors and a pen because I had no photos I couldn't really do much but I will finish it as I liked the technique. Lee said I could share her things, but I didn't need to

I don't think any of us were sad when 4.30pm came and we could start packing. I had to laugh at Andrea: she put a box under the Making Memories product and just swished it in with her arm! Packing up all the paper was my job and that took me one-and-a-half hours to do! There was just a little bit of beautiful paper there!

It was great to meet people I had only "met" on line: Trace, Shell, Yvonne, Nic, Lee and others. It was wonderful seeing Nik and others again. Thanks to SBO for the opportunity to spend time with them again

Whitcoull's Top 100

I've read the ones in bold; the ones with an asterisk I can't remember

1. Lord of the rings / JRR Tolkien
2. My sister's keeper / Jodi Picoult
3. Pride and prejudice / Jane Austen (a favourite)
4. Cross stitch / Diana Gabaldon
5. Harry Potter & the dealthy hallows / JK Rowling
6. The bronze horseman / Paullina Simons
7. The Da Vinci code / Dan Brown
8. The power of one / Bryce Courtenay
9. The pillars of the earth / Ken Follet
10. The other Boleyn girl / Phillipa Gregory
11. The lovely bones: a novel / Alice Sebold
12. To kill a mocking bird / Harper Lee
13. The kite runner / Khaled Hosseini
14. The time traveler's wife / Audrey Niffenegger
15. Holy Bible (Quite a bit)
16. The hobbit / J R R Tolkien
17. Magician / Raymond Feist
18. The clan of the cave bear / Jean M Auel *
19. Nineteen minutes / Jodi Piccoult
20. Gone with the wind / Margaret Mitchell (think Scarlett is a whinging female dog)
21. Angels and Demons / Dan Brown
22. Harry Potter and the half-blood prince / J K Rowling
23. The Poisonwood bible / Barbara Kingsolver
24. Into the wilderness / Sara Donati
25. A thousand splendid suns / Khaled Hosseini
26. Life of Pi / Yann Martel
27. Memoirs of a geisha / Arthur Golden
28. Jessica / Bryce Courtenay
29. Birdsong / Sebastian Faulks
30. Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone / J K Rowling
31. Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix / J K Rowling
32. A fine balance / Rohinton Mistry
33. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe / C S Lewis
34. Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte
35. Rachel's holiday / Marian Keyes *
36. The memory keeper's daughter / Kim Edwards
37. Shantaram: a novel / Gregory Roberts
38. Pact: a love story / Jodi Picoult
39. Tea Rose / Jennifer Donnelly
40. Change of heart / Jodi Picoult *
41. Angela's ashes / Frank McCourt
42. Mister Pip / Lloyd Jones
43. The girl in Times Square / Paullina Simons
44. Twilight / Stephanie Meyer
45. This charming man / Marian Keyes*
46. Wuthering heights / Emily Bronte

47. River God / Wilbur Smith
48. The Persimmon Tree / Bryce Courtenay
49. World without end / Ken Follet
50. Dune / Frank Herbert
51. Wild Swans: three daughters of China / Jung Chang
52. April Fools Day / Bryce Courtenay
53. Atonement / Ian McEwan
54. The bone garden / Tess Gerritsen
55. The alchemist / Paulo Coelho
56. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / J K Rowling
57. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Askaban / J K Rowling
58. Sushi for beginners / Marian Keyes
59. The curious incident of the don in the night-time / Mark Haddon
60. Catcher in the rye / J D Salinger
61. I know this much is true / Wally Lamb
62. Eragon / Christopher Paolini
63. Tomorrow with the war began / John Marsden
65. Northern lights / Philip Pullman
65. Captain Corelli's mandolin / Louis De Bernieres
66. Kane and Abel / Jeffrey Archer
67. Tully / Paullina Simons
68. Catch -22 / Joseph Heller
69. No. 1 ladies detective agency / Alexander McCall Smith
70. Watermelon / Marian Keyes *
71. We need to talk about Kevin / Lionel Shriver
72. Anybody out there / Marian Keyes
73. Chocolat / Joanne Harris
74. Winter Rose / Jennifer Donnelly
75. Denniston Rose / Jenny Pattrick
76. Killing Floor / Lee Child
77. A really short history of nearly everything / Bill Bryson
78. Anne of Green Gables / L M Montgomery
79. Nothing to lose / Lee Child
80. The secret / Rhonda Byrne
81. The book thief/ Markus Zusak
82. Galaxy / Douglas Adams
83. The stand / Stephen King
84. Edmonds Cookery Book / Edmonds
85. The potato factory / Bryce Courtenay
86. Lucy Sullivan is getting married / Marian Keyes
87. The vinter's luck / Elizabeth Knox
88. The red tent / Anita Diamant
89. Bridget Jone's diary: a novel / Helen Fielding
90. The Penguin history of New Zealand / Michael King (It's on my bookshelf!)
91. London / Edward Rutherford
92. The god of small things / Arundhati Roy
93. The shipping news / Annie E Proulx
94. Four fires / Bryce Courtenay *
95. Mao's last dancer / Li Gunxin
96. Last chance saloon / Marian Keyes
97. Plain truth / Jodi Picoult *
98. Perfume: the story of a murderer / Patrick Suskind
99. The Thorn birds / Colleen McCullough
100. The notebook / Nicholas Spark

Thanks to Penny for this list

The Bossy Scrapper

This is the second one I did. I think that the title is a bit small, but that's too bad now. And look at those ancient vellum stars I dragged out!

A delivery

On Friday Andrea asked me if she could redirect 20 boxes of stuff for SENZ to my address. Actually she had no option - it was an address in Wellington or returned to Aus. Of course I said yes but I did wonder how to break the news to Adrian.

Well, this morning just before we got up, I casually mentioned "a few boxes - maybe ten". I got up showered and dressed so I was ready.

Just before 8.30am a huge Road Star truck pulled up and a very grumpy driver got out and asked where I wanted the pallet.

"Pallet? I said "It was supposed to be broken down into boxes". And the voice from inside "PALLET???!!! was not good either. He wanted to know exactly how many boxes were coming.

Grumpy told me he would put the pallet on the driveway or on the pavement. No, I said, neither was convenient especially as Adrian still had to go to work. After a bit of discussion (including how Pak 'n' Save get their deliveries ..... but I'm not Pak 'n' Save) Grumpy left. He wouldn't even wait for me to phone DHL

I phoned Andrea in a state and she was extremely concerned that Grumpy would drive back to Auckland without leaving the boxes behind. I was not happy at that point

After a nail-biting few hours Grumpy returned; actually I think it was his way more pleasant twin brother. He unloaded all the boxes, discussed with me the damaged boxes and even helped me write the correct wording on the delivery note.

The boxes are now safely stored inside. In hindsight it was very funny, but not at the time

Roll on Thursday

My scrapping yesterday

Here are the new ones I did; the UFOs are further down in another post

House of Cards: I am so pleased with the mini playing cards I found!

Wellington: the photos are all post cards

I have wanted to do one about Wellington for a long time.

The next one will be the Ruapehu one

The Bossy Scrapper

Scrapbook by Design have a Sunday night challenge called "The Bossy Scrapper". "The Boss" is appointed each week and it's her responsibility to issue instructions to everyone on the night in order to create a layout unseen. Well, I'm The Boss on Sunday night! So turn up to the chat room, and be prepared to scrap with me.

Updated with a sneak peak of mine

And here is the full version

SENZ

YAY!! All sorted out - I'm a helper now which is exactly what I wanted to be. If you post a comment here, I'll email you and tell where you can find me :-)

Fiskars Circle punch

I bought one of these on Saturday morning for my friend at National Park. When I got there, we started to play with it. First we needed something with which to draw a circle and finally we found a 400g tin of fruit that was almost 4". Then we started to punch - it's not as easy as it seems. After about 20 messes each we finally managed a decent circle and it was time to pack up for dinner. Then we found .......... a template to cut circles! We laughed at ourselves

Sketches

For those of you who like sketches, this is one of my favourites. I like the idea but to be honest, I have yet to use any of them. My excuse is that I have had no time!

How are you doing getting photos ready to upload to Snapfish? I have 42 ready and I know I will go over the 50 limit but it makes no difference as I had planned on getting them printed these holidays so their special offer is a bonus

SENZ

Post deleted and edited further up

Holidays!

What are YOU going to be doing?

Resize photos and send them to DM to be printed.

I am going to finish all the UFOs I have and that includes the skirt I'm making

I am going to re-arrange my albums. I have decided to go ith D-Ring albums as they are sturdier and soooo much easier to organise. It does mean that I will have to buy some more albums though

I was supposed to be helping out at SENZ, but I've heard nothing and I have no accommodation (I thought I did) so I'm probably not going any more. :-(

Make a loaf of gluten free bread for hubby done

Do some laundry done one load

Wash the kitchen floor

Do the grocery shopping and go to the butcher (the downside of travelling so much was that I didn't really get a chance to keep the grocery cupboard or the freezer stocked)

Tidy up the dining room/lounge

I've updated this with my holiday chores list in the hopes that I can get motivated! I have done almost nothing today and feel so lazy! My bed and my book are calling me but I'd better get some of that damp laundry into the dryer

Home again!

Colin that is! he's so pleased to be home, but at the same time couldn't sleep last night because he was thinking about what he was leaving behind.

I drove up to National Park on Saturday and it was such an easy drive (hubby and my mom were worried about me driving by myself). We went to Owhango which is about 30 kms north of NP where our friends have a house. Yesterday, Colin and I went photo shooting and then had some lunch at the Station Cafe (yummy food!)

Colin with Mt Ruapehu in the background

The Chateau is to the left

Me

Colin walking to a patch of snow with Ruapehu in the back

From the Tongariro Crossing road

Just after 7pm on Sunday night

I was hoping for a "pink" mountain but it wasn't to be

Today we headed home but not before Colin had to say, "Goodbye bedroom, goodbye house, goodbye school" etc. And then there were tears when we said goodbye to our friends both from her and Colin (and me too).

Colin has had the most wonderful time there and grown so much and not only physically. He has loved being at school there and the quiet, calm atmosphere that exists; he has loved the challenges of skiing and managed on the last day to do parallel skiing (both skis right next to each other) and has therefore been invited back to join the three day skiing programme next year! I am concerned about how he will fit back into a noisy class with twice as many kids. We are both aware that we will have to do lots of school work after school in order to keep him at the level at which he should be.

We have just finished eating our dinner and he has come upstairs to tell me he's homesick!

Parents' Evening

Tonight we had parents' evening for the senior students. Reports from the mock exams were sent home last week and this was a follow up. I was at school at 8am this morning and didn't get home until just after 7pm. Ross was by himself with no dinner prepared.

So what's the point of this ramble? Well, I had kids say to me theri parents couldn't get there early as they had to work and then go home and cook etc etc. What??!! I, of course, don't have a family that need to be fed. This is important - it's about your child's (lack of) progress at school. Surely you leave your job early or you get take aways (like we did) so that you can talk to your child's teacher? Or am I of the minority? And then some don't even bother to turn up even with an appointment.

And then they'll blame us because their little darling didn't pass/get enough credits. Roll on Friday!!

My Blog List

I saw this when I went to create a new post yesterday and had fun adding a few to my side bar .... makes it very easy to see who has updated! Scroll down and have a look and if I haven't got your blog there let me know and I'll add you

Must add another photo

Here's my boy lying on the couch in the house at National Park. He's wearing his school uniform and the cushion he's lying on is what he made at sewing at Taumaruni High School! He's so proud of it.

Ships that Pass in the Night

That's what we are at the moment - both of us have so much on. There's the bi-annual Tawa Music Festival and all the practices, Parents night at school, then I'm going to fetch Colin next weekend which all makes for a very busy couple of weeks where we will barely get to see each other.

Yesterday I went scrapping and managed to do four l/os in a very short time and mostly using SBO kits ..... actually the paper add-ons. I love these as I get eight pieces of cardstock and usually two pieces of patterned paper that all co-ordinate and I don't have to do the thinking. There's a bit of a joke going on at SBO (yes Vicki and Lainie) right now about me using the kits to wall paper the house as I certainly don't use it for scrapping!! No time, no time. Most of them need journalling and/or titles but I'll get to that in the holidays

Well, here they are:

These two old photos of the boys sitting in the dishwasher?!

Paper is from an SBO kit

c/s is core'dinations with a light green core (looks white in the photo)

Ross making towers out of playing cards -

I am hoping to win a TM auction for miniture cards to use on this

Little Yellow Bicycle paper

Red "corrugated" c/s

Ross playing bowls this year

SBO kit

I liked the patterned paper as it looked a bit like the coloured bowls they use

I am also going to put this into the NZ Dares extremes of scale challenge because when I cut the word "Bowls" I was surprised at how big it was but I think it looks good with the smaller photos on the left and also the little circles on the patterned paper

Colin in 2006 when he was the bell ringer at school

SBO kit

I used my WishBlade to cut the titles but still feel as though I'm learning what to do with it.

Only one week left of this term and I really won't be sad when it's over. My Year 10 class is so hard because there are a number of really lazy kids in the class who won't work and this has affected the rest of the class. Some of the girls have started being silly and when I spoke to them theysaid "Miss, they diss us if we work". I can see that a number of the other boys' work has steadily gone downhill this year and I really am distressed about it. Any suggestions?

The is not much time left with the seniors - 2o school days with my Year 12s and 21 with my Year 11s - funny but I'm the only one who's worried!

Well, I'd better get on and ice the cake to take down to choir practice for the director who turns 65 today. Have a good last week those of you who are teachers/have children at school

Another weekend at the Mountain

This time we went on Thursday because the plan was to go up the mountain on Friday (before the crowds) to see what Colin could do. Unfortunately on Friday the weather was so bad that we went to Taupo instead. Saturday's forecast wasn't great, but we decided to go anyway. e got up the mountain and there were crowds of people there, but we headed down to Happy Valley. Colin gave Adrian and Ross some instructions, but Adrian really struggled and gave up. Ross, however, took to it like a duck to water. He was off and skiing very quickly. Around lunchtime, the sun was shining so much that we were just in short sleeves. Then it started snowing - thank goodness for the right clothing. We all kept warm and dry.



Today, the weather as beautiful and the sun was glistening off the snow. Colin said that when the sun set tonight the snow was glowing pink. Some of my photos were blurred which is disappointing.

Mt Ruapehu

Tongariro on the left and Ngauruhoe on the right

Just two weeks of term to go and I will be really pleased.

Scrapbook Olympics

At The Sketch Book, an online NZ Forum, the owners are running Scrapbook Olympics. I signed up but had no time/no inspiration (inclination) to do the first two challenges. However, challenge #3 was to use only ten items including the cardstock and photos - now that's an easy one for me. So I kept it simple (as usual) and here's my take:

2 x c/s - blue and beige - it's the new core'dinations range which has a lovely inner core

2 x titles - also blue and beige cut by my WishBlade

2 x chipboard "squiggles"

3 x photos

1 journalling block and there's my ten items!

Mama Mia!

What a fun movie! And even more fun watching it with the words to the songs as sub titles and the audience joining in. That's what we did tonight at The Lighthouse Cinema in Petone

And because Colin is away, Father's Day is postponed to the first Sunday in October

My complaint today

Now most of you know that I am a secondary school Maths teacher. If I was teaching YOUR child I am sure that you would expect me to teach them correctly?

So why are primary school teachers exempt from teaching correctly? I'm talking about the following:
you're not your
you not youse
could have not could of (would have not would of)
they're; there and their used correctly
the difference between bought and brought (bought/ buy and brought/bring)
and don't get me started on the correct use of an apostrophe
and I haven't even started on the Maths!

And let me say at this point that there are some wonderful primary school teachers out there who do all this correctly and a lot more

Just my complaint for the day

This and That

About six weeks ago, I had a recurrence of the inner ear infection and ran out of medication. I went to the doctor for more and whilst I was there, she found a heart murmur so off to the cardiologist for me. After an ECG, an Echo test (ultra sound) and then a consultation, there was no serious problem at all. Just a very expensive waste of three hours! Thanks goodness for medical insurance as it was nearly $1000!

Colin is really growing up in this time while he's away. He is maturing and just becoming his own person. He does enjoy the freedom of small town living. His "family" will really miss him when he comes home. I, however, am looking forward to having him home

Our seniors have been away (well not really away) from school the last week. They have had trial exams so only had the juniors (year 9s and 10s) and it's been quite nice. I did work very hard on my marking and got it all done before the weekend.

Talking of juinors, I'm always very strict on my classes at the beginning of the year and later on it's relatively easy to deal with them as I have set the ground rules and they know what I expect. This is often rather difficult as I "find" the problem kids early on and suffer because others don't have a problem. Later on in the year, however, others start having big problems. This year it is no different - big problems with the Year 9 class I teach - got to have a meeting with their other teachers tomorrow about them. As my HoD says, I am probably having very few problems with them now as I set the standards early on. Oh well, I'll go to the meeting and keep quiet

Today is ...

En******ht Day! Yes we arrived eleven years ago today and this is home!

On a different note, we were up in National Park this weekend and Ross and I went by train. It was quite fun even though the journey up took seven hours! The weather was glorious and I tried to get a number of photos of The Mountain from the train but the reflection in the window wasn't great.

Anyway, here's the three of us standing on the school field and the snow behind is is Mt Ruapehu but it was covered in cloud.

Colin only has four weeks left there, and he said he was a bit sad today but nowhere near like he was last weekend. The next four weeks will go very quickly and soon he will be home .... and missing The Park I'm sure

What a weekend

On Saturday Adrian and Ross went to football (the first match in eight weeks) and I stayed home to get ready for our visitors. I cooked a pumpkin soup (which wasn't great) and I also made two loaves of bread that I put in the oven when my Mom came. Thank goodness she was watching, as the silicon mat that my bread was on was touching an element and caught fire in the oven! I don't have a fire extinguisher (on the list now) so I switched off the oven at the wall and hoped that the fire would die because of a lack of oxygen. No such luck - it got bigger so I opened the oven door and smothered the flames with my towel. In the meantime, the smoke alarm went off. Anyway, I sorted all that out, and put my bread back into the oven and it came out fine albeit covered in a bit of ash.

The lunch was fine; the party guests arrived and had fun. The pizza dinner was great as was the chocolate mousse. Colin and I spent a fair amount of time chatting about National Park and how he was enjoying being there ... but missing us. All the boys went to sleep downstairs and were asleep by 11pm - not too bad.

I got up this morning and started preparing and cooking the pancakes and at 9.08am, a father phoned and said he was on his way to pick up his son then. I was a bit taken aback as it was news to me that the boy was going that early and said so. "Oh well", said the dad, "I'll be there in fifiteen minutes then"! I got them all breakfasted by then and sent said boy away with two pancakes in a serviette!

Then came time to take Colin back to Levin and he fell apart saying that he did not want to go. I knew it was emotions and tiredness speaking as he had had two late nights and two early mornings and he cannot cope without enough sleep (wonder who he takes after!) He cried all the way to Levin and at one point I told him that I would be failing in my duty as a mother if I allowed him to give up now. Well, he finally got out of the car and they left at 3.20pm. By the time they got to Taihape he had forgiven me and spent the rest of the journey texting me.

I would love to just tell him to stay home, but that is not the best thing for him right now. He must finish what he started - we have always insisted on that, but I know that if he was in any danger whatsoever, I would fetch him home immediately. But he isn't in danger, and he is enjoying himself very much - he just misses us. And I understand - he's only 12 after all.

He only had five weeks to go and he is learning so much and enjoying himself with all the nature surrounding him - he will come home a stronger person

Edited Monday morning: Colin phoned this morning - he slept well, is feeling fine apart from a cold, but "luckily I bought some Vitamin C at New World last night and I'll be mad if I can't ski this week"! So he's fine

Fourteen years ago

Ross at five days old

Party today - four extra boys arriving at 2pm to play PlayStation and watch movies. Then I'll give them home-made pizza and chocolate mousse. Three will sleep-over and they'll get pancakes for breakfast

Sixteen Years ago

And we were going to see Mama Mia and then dinner at Monsoon Poon but Adrian is sick so that's on hold for a while

My baby's coming home on Saturday!!

Just for the night. His lovely "in loco parentis" have decided it's the end of Week Five so they're going to bring him for a quick visit. They will tell him on Friday night - he will be soooo excited (not to mention me!)

They will arrive on around lunch time on Staurday and leave around 2pm on Sunday so it will be a very quick visit but so worth it.

Only three sleeps to go!

Week Four

I didn't realise how tired I would be this term: full-time work; going to a sewing class each week; teaching (and preparing for) a scrapping class each week; travelling up and down to National Park every fortnight; and the normal every day mom/wife stuff. I am tired tonight and Colin was in tears when we left which meant that I was crying as we drove away. He doesn't want to come home though as he is having a wonderful time.

Here are some photos:

Colin with Ngauruhoe in the background (photo taken by his friend Cleveland)

Colin at the Kiwi chick release - he was very lucky to be invited to go and his words were: "Mom, it was AWESOME!"

Playing in the snow at National Park yesterday (Saturday)

Do you like my new jacket? I made it!

At National Park station waiting for the Parliamentary train to celebrate the Centennary of Rail in NZ (wearing ski uniform)

The steam engine

Saturday

My curry as wonderful as was the glass of wine and piece of carrot cake!

Football was cancelled this morning but none of us were too upset. We stayed in bed to watch the recorded Olympic opening ..... except my two boys didn't record half of the athletes coming in and not New Zealand!

I have to go to the shops to buy some bulk foods and the butcher and clean the kitchen floor and then hopefully finish last week's l/o that I started. I also got some ribbon for a challenge at SBO but work and other stuff got in the way and I didn't manage it - maybe this weekend.

At the moment I seem to be living from fortnight to fortnight though!

Colin is going on a kiwi release some time this month and he is really excited about that. He is having so many wonderful experiences and fortunately the homesickness has worn off.

Okay so the highlights of the opening are on TVone now so I'm off to watch it

A small vent

We live in a fairly small suburb so I have always told my boys to be careful what they do as they don't know who is watching them.

Well, the same applies to most of New Zealand .... some one always knows what you are doing and more imprtantly can get hurt by these actions.

So that's where I am - hurt. People who I thought were friends not telling me about an event so I perceive this as a lie of omission.

People who make plans and try to pass it off as something that happened a long time ago.... meantime a discussion has happened and none of that was mentioned

People who break my confidence and "tell tales"

So some of this is work related, but much of it has happened in what should be a fun area of my life and I honestly did not like being treated like a mushroom .... keep me in the dark and feed me sh*t!! I am sick of DRAMAH.

I'm feeling hurt, left out and let down and want to just disappear into the sunset until all these people (and they're all women) realise they're not the only ones with feelings and that I have them too. I know I try very hard to accommodate people and yes, I get it wrong but hopefully I'm able to apologise ... something which is lacking from some of these "friends".

Okay enough - I'm off to buy curry for dinner which I'll share with my husband and have a glass or three of wine and I should feel better then

Skiing!

So this is what he went to do!

On the chairlift going down

First set of instructions

On the tow bar

Learning to stop

Eating lunch

Edited to add that I was scrapping this weekend at National Park using last year's May SBO kits (!) and I looked through the Heidi Grace pack that I won in January from ANZ Fiskars (not opened until now) and it was snow themed paper! Just perfect for these photos

Surprise!!

And yes he was surprised to see us so early! We had a really good trip north despite the over turned trees and broken branches through Levin. hat a time they had on Thursday through that storm, but there was lots of clearing happening when e came through.

We got to National Park just on 2pm, wwent down to the cafe to say hello and then headed to the house. We crept next dood to school and sat chatting with the Principal for a while before going into the hall to see our boy. The kids around him asked if we were his parents - the school is so small all the kids know all the parents and clearly we were unknown therefore we had to be Colin's parents. We followed them back to class, where they were dismissed for the day and then had a chance to see Colin's artwork and other school work and chat to his teacher.

And then Colin asked if he could go to a friend for a while! I was so pleased about that so he went off to his friend, we unpacked and had a cup of tea. When he came home, he was all over us - even after dinner he just had to sit next to us and touch us.

He talked about his being homesick and how he cried every night but by the Thursday he was feeling better. He knows that he will be sad on Sunday but also has expressed how lucky he is and pleased that he has this chance.

Colin is also working hard at school - he has to - he's the only Yr 8 boy so is unable to diasappear into the crowd! Because it is such a small class, there are very few behavioural problems so the kids can just get on and learn - Colin acknowledges this too and that he's enjoying it.

We are doing nothing today - it is wet and miserable out so I made pain au chocolat for breakfast and now we're just relaxing in front of the fire.

We may head up to Piper's Lodge tonight to watch the rugby (don't laugh) and tomorrow, Colin wants us to go to the cafe "Out of the Fog" for breakfast

More about Colin

Well, the Carrot Carnival apparently wasn't too exciting so they headed up to Turoa but were turned back because the blizzard came through. Colin then went to Owhango where they spent the rest of the weekend.

Breakfast on Sunday morning at Cafe in the Fog

Playing pool at Ski Haus

Gloves drying after skiing

Colin phoned me tonight to say they were probably going skiing tomorrow and he was moving up from Happy Valley to Rockgarden flat - so no longer in the beginners area! He is sounding soo much better! And I am so grateful to the people who are trying as hard as they can to make him feel at home. And I am equally grateful to all of you who are sending ME words of encouragement

Roll on Friday!

End of Week 1

Well, Colin went skiing today and is much happier! They spent the entire day at Happy Valley and had a wonderful time and he is as happy as can be this evening, Thank goodness for that.

As for me - one down, nine to go. At least I have Friday off next week. The kids go wild when the wind blows or whenever the weather is bad. The seniors do not seem to be at all worried that they do their Mock Exams in five weekes time. I seem to be the only one worried. Argh!

Homesick

Last night my boy spent ages texting me to tell me he wants to come home. I know he's homesick and of course it breaks my heart. I told him that people can get homesick at any age (I did eleven years ago when we moved here) and beating it will make him a stronger person. I told him that when he starts feeling homesick (at night in bed) he should focus on good things. I also told him to think about the fun things that will happen and in no time it will be next weekend and we will be going up there.

As a mother, I just want to drive up there and hold him and hug him and bring him home but for his sake I know that won't work. Oh but is is hard!

Edited tonight: Thanks for all your compassion. He sounds happier but is still telling me he wants to come home. I said we'd talk about it next week. Much as I'd love to have him back home, I don't want him to come home because then I want him to learn through this and come out stronger at the other end

My boy

Here is Colin in his new school uniform

And relaxing in front of the TV tonight before dinner

Colin phoned me tonight and sounded so happy and had had a really good day. His "Mum" packed him a good lunch and morning tea and he couldn't finish it all! His teacher said he worked really well in class and was well settled too. He loves his new homework book - four pages per week so that's a page a day he tells me! They're hoping to go skiing on Thursday so I'm sure that I'll have lots more to tell then.

Thanks for all the messages of care that many of you have sent me - I really appreciate it.