A Year in Review

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope that this letter finds you all well; as we are. Once again, we’ve tried losing weight, Jenny with more success than Adrian – it remains an ongoing battle! We started doing some more home renovations and painted all the deck and other wood areas as well as the second spare bedroom. There is still more to be done but we’ll get to it eventually.

We spent a week in Rotorua in October and had a wonderful time. We did lots of touristy things like a mud bath at Hell’s Gate (the smell of which is still in our clothes!!). We also found a wonderful mini golf course that had real steam coming out of various holes around the course. We also went to Mt Tarawera where the world famous pink-and-white terraces were before they were covered by the volcanic explosion in 1886. Of course we had to go to our favourite Wakite Pools which have had an extra pool added. We think it is Rotorua’s best kept secret! On the way back, we stopped just off the Desert Road as there had been a lot of snow and all three boys had great fun throwing snow balls.

Our cul-de-sac is once again a hive of activity as we have Christmas “tourists” coming round. The lights outside get better and better every year and we struggle to keep up with the "Joneses".

Adrian once again has had another successful year at xxx - he really enjoys what he does and is making a difference in the work place. Adrian still enjoys his walks on the beach front at lunchtime when the weather is fine. xxxx sent him to Teched in Auckland this year (Microsoft’s annual technical conference) that is a first for him and from which he learned much. He is still a member at xxx Lions and is the secretary of the club for the current year. Adrian had a fantastic trip to Brisbane in May at a Lions leadership seminar and came home full of enthusiasm. Next year he will be on the District Governor’s cabinet as the PR person.

Jenny has had an up and down year at xxx College and next year will not be making quite as much effort to ensure that homework is done! She continues to really enjoy scrapping, has started teaching a night class at the Adult Education centre, and continues to run a very popular and successful annual Scrap Camp at Forest Lakes, a resort about an hours drive north of Wellington. Jenny was lucky enough to get a cheetah encounter at Wellington Zoo for her birthday and Christmas present – what a wonderful experience that was! Two beautiful cheetah who were born at De Wildt and who now reside at Wellington Zoo. They both love the human interaction and start purring as soon as they have their harnesses on.

In mid-October, Jenny’s credit card was stolen by a criminal well-known for impersonating a woman. He managed to spend nearly $2,000 in four days before we discovered this and put a stop on the card. He was arrested by the police shortly afterwards and appeared in court on 21st December. There are over 60 charges against him including impersonating a nurse in Christchurch and stealing a car which he drove to Wellington. He then sat in the xxx College staff room looking official and when he had the opportunity, went through Jenny’s bag and purse selecting her credit card. The police will now take a victim statement from Jenny which will be read out in court at the sentencing.

The boys get bigger and bigger: Ross is now twelve and Colin has just turned eleven. Both of them will be at Intermediate (two years of schooling between Primary and High school) next year before Ross heads off to College in 2007.

Ross again had a successful year at Gymnastics: he was invited to trial for the Competition squad and even though he was really sick (he spent two weeks in bed), he gave it his very best effort and was selected. This means training twice a week and for longer hours, but he is enjoying it. He again won the Male Incentive trophy presented to the gymnast who has the best scores in Badge work. His coach told me that his scores were up amongst the girls’ scores so we are very proud of him. He has had a wonderful first year at Intermediate and has improved his Maths particularly in the areas of problem solving. Ross was one of only two pupils in the school to receive a Mental Computation merit (amongst others) and brought home an excellent report. He has been selected to go on a Year 8 trip to Ruapehu in March next year.

Colin finishes his final year at Primary school and had a good year. He said as we were walking from xxx School that he was glad he went there. (Some of you may recall that we changed his primary school four years ago.) Colin has matured over the year and managed to get his Basic facts from 51% to 92% much of it with help from Adrian who relentlessly every morning during the car trip to school, practised with him. Colin again took part in the school swimming competition relay team which they won and then went on to the Wellington regional finals. Colin had a collage art work on display at Capital E this year – the only boy’s piece of art work amongst a number of girls’ pieces.

Both boys played winter soccer, this time in the same team which made it very easy for us not having to go in two different directions on a Saturday morning. They have also just finished a very successful Twilight Soccer (summer soccer) season where their team came first.

In July, Jenny put Mom and Dad Woods’ house on TradeMe (a New Zealand based online auction site) and within three weeks the house was sold saving thousands in agent’s commission. Then followed a very stressful period as they had nowhere to go to; but came to our house for a week. The day they moved out of the sold house, we found them a wonderful little rental property fairly close and within walking distance of the Intermediate. The agent chose them over forty applicants and within a week they were able to move. They are now well settled as is their cat. Ross will often walk there instead of walking home – just to pop in for a snack!

We still have our family blog where we try to regularly update with our news – go and visit and leave us a comment our two! http://engel4nz.blogspot.com/

We’d love to have you visit us as we have the space; this year we had Wayne (Jenny’s neighbour in South Africa) who now lives in Australia, come to visit us. He was even lucky enough to help with the painting. While he was here we went to see King Kong which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

So just enough time to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year

Love from,
Adrian, Jenny, Ross and Colin

The stolen credit card update

Here's a link to the court case that was held yesterday: http://www.stuff.co.nz/3907478a10.html The thief will be sentenced in January and the police will need to take a victim report from me that will be read out at the sentencing

Christmas Crop

Yesterday was our Christmas Crop and it was a fun day even though I was almost too tired to keep my eyes open. I didn't sleep well on Friday night and the 5.4 earthquake at 3.40am didn't help much.

Anyway, I managed only one l/o but the lettering took hours to do. Some patterend paper, some ribbon, some chipboard (a first for me) and of course Bazzill

The rest of the story

On Saturday 21st October I spent the day scrapping and when I got home Adrian noticed late in the evening that there were a lot of transactions on our credit card. We thought the transactions had been incorrectly processed to our card number but no, it was transactions on my credit card. We put a stop to it at 11.30pm that night, but I felt absolutely sick and I didn't sleep very well that night. We had to go to the police the next day (Sunday) to make a statement. The last time I used it was on the Tuesday before at the petrol station. We went and reported it on the Sunday morning and for the life of me I could not remember what had happened - I was positive I got it back and put it away after buying petrol. The sergeant promised that he would get on to it.
On the Monday afternoon (23rd October - it was a holiday here) I got a call from a policeman at Wellington Central CIB about my credit card! They found a slip for items purchased at Wellington Airport on Friday afternoon in a stolen car that they recovered. This was front page news that day : http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/0,2106,3836699a6000,00.html Later that afternoon, CIB phoned me to tell me that "she" had been arrested. I asked them to ask how "she" got my credit card. The next day Tuesday, CIB phoned me te tell me that "she" confessed: he admitted that he came into our school sat around in the staffroom chatting to people and then stole my card from my handbag! We have staff work rooms and we all keep our things there
"She" ran up a total of $1700 in four days but we don't have to pay it. It will go to court sometime in the future and he will be fined/sent to jail/whatever.
It was a dreadful feeling knowing that someone like that had been through my handbag and purse and I felt sick for the rest of that week. I'm feeling better now though

*Update*: Chapman appeared in court on Tuesday this week on 28 different charges - he pleaded not guilty to all of them!

My terrible horrible no good very bad week

My credit card went missing! When we discovered it, I wished I was in Fiji

And I can't tell too much of the story but it has to do with a criminal here who managed to run up $2,000 but is now behind bars - I bet he wishes he was in Fiji!

Rotorua - Saturday - coming home

Saturday saw the end of our week in Rotorua. We stopped off for a last swim at the Waikite pools and then headed south. Coming into Taupo, there was not a cloud in the sky and of course the mountains were really clear. We stopped in Turangi for a quick cup of coffee with my friend Julie and then set off again.








It had been very cold in Wellington and on the Desert Road during the week, and just at the Tukino ski field turn off I saw some snow. I turned off and I had barely stopped the car and the boys were all out having such fun. It didn't seem to matter that they had no shoes or warm tops - they just played as it is the first time that they remember seeing any form of snow.

Rotorua - Friday - Waikite Pools

These must rate as Rotorua's best kept secret! About 20 minutes south of Rotorua turn right and travel 6kms to the softest, cleanest and cheapest mineral baths in the area. It is such a breath of fresh air to get away from the other Rotorua prices which are clearly aimed at the US$, Japanese Yen and GBP. $20 for the family and we spent a good couple of hours relaxing in the warm "oily" water. Previously there were two pools, last week they opened the third one which is a very natural pool - they were originally the changing rooms! It was a lovely day and Ross and I even got burnt! The water comes from a boiling spring a short distance away which is pumped out of the river and then cooled before draining into one of the three pools.

Rotorua - Thursday - Mt Tarawera

In the late 19th century, people came from far and wide to see the famous Pink & White Terraces- caused by silica build up. During the early morning of 10th June 1886, Mt Tarawera volcano exploded through a 13km gash so splitting the mountain and blowing up the Terraces. The village where people stayed before going out on the lake to see the Terraces was covered in mud and ash killing 17 people. In 1938 excavations were done and some of the village was uncovered as well as various items - beds, hats, hand bag, cooking utensils etc.








We walked around the village and through the rest of the property. There is a lovely stream with trout in it and a waterfall at the end. This set of stairs was only one of many to get to the falls. I choose not to go down, but the boys did.















This grove of poplar trees grew from fence posts.

After a lovely afternoon tea of scones and coffee, we then went on down to the lake.

Rotorua - Wednesday - The Luge

Wednesday we headed up the gondolas to ride the luge - well, the boys rode and I watched. It was a beautiful day out. Actually, it started out a bit overcast but soon cleared into a beautiful day. This photo is looking back down towards Lake Rotorua from inside the gondola







Each luge ride took about half-an-hour as they had to wait at the bottom to catch the chairlift back up to the top.











The chair lift also scooped up the luges to return them to the top

Rotorua - Tuesday at Hell's Gate

Tuesday dawned bright and clear so we went to Hell's Gate - lots of steam, small geysers, boiling mud and hot water. The walk around took us about an hour but really wasn't very far - we just enjoyed looking at all the thermal activity.










The boys found natural pigment and proceeded to paint their faces as well as their hands!










Then we had a mud bath - something we've never done before! The mud was enjoyably warm but the cold shower to remove the mud wasn't. Relaxing in the warm water spa afterwards was great and we did feel really good at the end of it all.

Rotorua - Monday

Actually Sunday afternoon as well! The boys love to play mini golf and we found this wonderful fun park that had a pre-hsitoric mini golf - complete with dinosaurs and steam holes! But there was lots more and Adrian bought them all tickets for the racing cars, bumpy boats and mini golf. They raced in the cars and then it started to rain so we checked that we could come back on Monday.









Monday it rained most of the day but we went back in the afternoon for them to complete their fun. And fun they had on the bumpy boats! Look at the glee on Colin's face!









The mini golf was in such a good setting with the concrete dinosaurs and the steam holes all around

Rotorua - Saturday & Sunday

We went to Rotorua for a week in the holidays so that the whole family could unwind ..and I think we did. We travelled north on Saturday 30/9 and as soon as I saw that mountain, I felt my soul lifting. The photo is not great as the mountain was covered in cloud.


In Rotorua, the boys were so impressed with the street gardens - tulips surrounded by contrasting flowers. We took quite a few photos on Sunday - which was just as well because the wind blew very strongly that night and lots of the tulips lost their petals. We also went to the craft market on the waterfront and were most impressed with this music scene - made out of wood

Art work on display

In April this year, the Year 6s at Colin’s school did a Rocky Shore theme. Then they had to create a piece of artwork – collage which could include paper, sewing, stuffing some pieces etc on a large piece of Hessian. I took some photos then and today Colin brought home at note saying it was on display at Capital E for the duration of the school holidays!

Gymnastics Competition Squad!

On 28th August, we received a letter from the Gym Club inviting Ross to try out for the Competition Squad the following week. He was so excited! he couldn't wait to tell people! On Friday 1st September he got so sick that he spent the weekend in bed. I kept him home on the Monday but he went along to the trials. feeling as sick as a dog. He worked so hard trying to show how well he could do and that his attitude was great. He got home exhausted and too tired even to eat

He then spent the rest of the week in bed really feeling not well at all with a horrible cough virus that kept us all awake at night. Week two and he was still too sick to go to school but we got THE phone call - yes he was in! He was so happy!

He spent the rest of the week recovering and only went to school for two hours on Thursday and Friday. It is Sunday today and he is so much better

Photography lessons

from the wonderful Ngaire Bartlam! At a class at SENz where I was T/A for Ngaire, she told us how to get good photos of ourselves. "Someone else needs to take the photo and that person has to stand on a chair photographing down. A bit of lippy and you're away.

Ross turns 12

Ross chose once again to have his party at Tawa pool with an inflatable. His friends arrived at 3pm when we had birthday cake as Adrian was flying to Auckland later that night. We then went down to the pool where the boys spend two hours having lots of fun on their own private inflatable.















We came back home for home-made pizza and jelly and ice cream. Then they went downstairs to play PS and watch movies on Adrian's new home theatre. Ross had a wonderful day - as usual!

Teaching scrapbooking classes

I taught a scrapbooking class last term at College at the night school and again this term. Many of the ladies from last term asked for a further class. I am teaching Scrapbooking 2 in ten days time. Instead of doing a l/o, I am doing little technique books with lots of techniques in them that each person can then use later

New house in Tawa

no not us but my parents. They have the cutest little house that is three minutes away from us. They are settled in well as is the cat! The garden needs some work but they will work on it slowly.

Crafting Connection 2006

CC was hot, the Mega Crop was not! It was noisy, it was unorganised. Someone did the introduction of the tutors which I feel should have been done by David. There was also a quiz which was a waste of time because all she did was pull a name out of the basket for the winner. Because of the noise you couldn't hear her either. She didn’t speak loudly enough, she wasn’t dynamic enough to get that many scrappers excited, the make ‘n takes were a complete waste of time. Personally, I felt that every one who dressed up should have got a small prize; she could also have gone round to each of the groups who were dressed up and spoken to them and announced their choice of name etc.

As for the rest - WOW! Cathy Z was delightful, Ali was sweet and helpful and Donna was so funny. I didn't finish anything: I wonder if I will! In fact, I haven't even looked at the product bags we were handed in Cathy's classes. These were design talks rather than create classes. I do have some photos though.














Donna had these cute little craft drills that we played with. I'd love one - but I'd never use it again!

It was fantastic meeting so many online friends - we had fun at One Red Dog etc

Settled in

Well, we moved my parents out of their house and put their furniture in storage. The day they moved, we saw a house advertised and went to see it last Sunday along with about forty other families/people. It was just perfect and we were all thrilled when we got the call in the aftrenoon to say it was theirs. What was even better, was that they could move in quickly, so on Friday they moved in. We worked hard all day, but tey onle slept there on Saturday night. After doing more work today, most of the boxes are unpacked - there is just some sorting out to do.

They have two bedrooms, a conservatory, lounge/dinigroom and an internal access garage - perfect for them. They will need to do a bit of work in the garden but that's lomg term stuff. For now, they are settling in nicely and we will fetch the cat tomorrow and then the three of them and have the rest of the week to sort things out.