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