Scrapping yesterday

As I drove away from home, I felt a real lift in my spirits. Don't get me wrong, I love my boys and my home, but I just need a break once a month!

So yesterday I finished hubby's Greek Islands holiday album (apart from a few titles this morning on my WishBlade). It represents about 30 hours effort and I am so pleased with it - so is he! I kept it plain and just used co-ordinating c/s and theme pattern paper (LYB Traveller).

I also completed my January Project 12 l/o:

It was very hot yesterday and even though the fans blew paper around, we still had them going. Today however, is different - wet and quite a lot cooler. I quite like it actually.

Tomorrow the kids come in at staggered times to find out the form class and get their timetables. Teaching starts on Tuesday. This year is important for Ross (NCEA Level 1) and Colin (Yr 10) as he has to come to grips with working hard all the time

Happy 30th Aniversary to a wonderful couple

Jenny and Alan

They've had their ups (lots), downs (a few) and they have been married for 30 years today. In a society where it's very easy to walk out when it gets tough, these two have stuck together. Congratulations and lots of love from us. Feel free to go here and add your best wishes :-)

Project Greece

I have again been working on hubby's Greek holiday photos but realised I would need more patterned paper. I have using the LYB Fresh Traveller series and the co-ordinating Bazzill c/s. This is a really good place to find the co-ordinating c/s So once I had all my supplies, and I'm keeping it simple, I got started in early January and did some more on Saturday when the summer weather here was 14°C and raining.Here are just two of the l/os that I've done.

This one is a 12x12 and a 6x12

I was so happy to find paper with these bicycles on it as it picked up the theme of the bicycle that hubby hired on holiday

He is really pleased with it so far!

Employment

Some of you have been aware of some of the ongoing sagas of my employment at my current school and that I have been part-time for the last six years with extra fixed term contracts thrown in ad hoc each year. I am very pleased to tell you that today I received a letter giving me full time permanent employment!!!

Colin's Fishing Trip

Colin has taken a liking to fishing and neither of us can be of any help at all. Late last year he went on a surf fishing trio with Pete Lamb Fishing and today he went on an all day boat fishing trip (cjristmas present from his grandparents.). He and I were up at 6am to be out at the marina before 7am. Off they set - about 14 people. They headed out and spent the whole day fishing. Just after 10am I got a phone call from a very excited Colin - he had caught a big enough fish so we could all eat some! At lunchtime they were given a nice bbq (just meat and bread) but lots of it. Some of them elected to just share their catch which was cleaned and filleted on board for them. Colin brought home around 2kgs of terakihi, sea pearch, groper, warehou and red cod. He actually caught two terakihi and two sea perch.

The boat heading out

Colin holding one of his terakihi

Holding a shark someone else caught.

Back home with his share in a bag

It was really delicious and we have lots of leftovers

Summer is here!

And it is hot, hot, hot!

I have been at school in the mornings mainly tutoring a friend of mine's son who didn't do too well last year, but also doing a bit of preparation for this year.

I have also had lots of photos printed from our lovely holiday and have even used some of them to complete most of my my Senz l/os. I have also finished a few more UFOs that have been lurking round here!

Colin at around 12 months old

Adrian's mother Ivy

1945 (the original photos were hand coloured)

Wedding Day
From our trip to SA in 2001 (the day we had to find the emergency dentist)

Senz l/os with 2010 photos

Photo at Cape Reinga

Photos at Bay of Islands and Hauraki Gulf (Auckland)

Photos at a couple of bird parks

I was reading Lara's blog where she talks about being a "flat scrapper" and I think I am too. Basically, Lara doesn't like having to trim her 12x12 pages is order to fit them into a page protector - I agree and I also don't like squashed embellishments. So I'll stick to "flat scrapping"!

And now I'd better cook some dinner!

Twisted teeth and twisted toe

Ross went to the orthodontist today to get his first set of wires on his teeth. He wouldn't let me take a photo today, "tomorrow" but I did get the cast of his teeth. The pencil marks are where the wires have been stuck on in his mouth. He wanted red wires, however, there weren't any left so he's chosen metallic blue!

I went to the dermatologist earlier as I have a toe that's been bothering me for ages (read "years"). Yes, I have a fungal infection in my nail, but I also have "hammer toe" and I have to see an orthopaedic specialist in February for that!

The sun came out today and it's really hot and was especially hot for all those down in Wellington waiting for Prince William.

I also collected my photos today so will see what else I can get completed this week

Where's Summer?

Today's temperature is 13°C and it's raining! This is mid-January and is supposed to be summer! At least we went up north and got some sun . Today we have spent most of the day on our laptops mainly rearranging, resizing and saving photos. Harvey Norman has a special on at the moment - 12cents a print is not bad.

I did a number of UFOs this week - mainly needing a title and/or journalling

These photos are from June 1998

Photos from our trip to SA in 2001

South African scenery

and Singapore on our way home

We went back for my MIL's funeral and this l/o relates to that

June 2009 and the new car

July 2009 and our road trip: Ruapehu
Photos of my SIL and I: 2002 and 2009

Ross and his driver's license

I still have eleven UFOs to complete but I got some ideas from my lovely SIL so will have suitable photos printed.

Home again

We spent two nights with friends just north of National Park and really needed Saturday to just relax and do nothing. In the late afternoon, I started the project that I took to do on holiday - Adrian's Greek Islands holiday photos from about 1989! I bought some Little Yellow Bicycle paper and matching Bazzill C/S and just worked with that - no matting - just photos and a bit of patterned paper. I'm really pleased at how it's coming together and Adrian is too - so that's the important part! We arrived home today with four wash loads and not-so-nice weather. It was very hard coming home and not hearing, "meow, meow, meow" as we got out the car.

Here are some photos (just 21 of the hundreds I have):

Driving from Thames into Coromandel Town

The boys at wonderful Waiau Waterpark

Us with our arms stretched out round a very old Kauri tree

Cathedral Cove and the beautiful white sand

Hot Water Beach

Then onto Kerikeri ......

The Stone Store

Cape Reinga (simply magical)

Manogonui fish and chip shop :-(

Hole-in-the-Rock ... yes boats sail through there

The drive-on-drive off ferry from Opua (Paihia) to Russell

Pompallier (original Catholic printing house in Russell)

The original (and still used) police station in Russell

Okiato - the original capital of NZ just outside Russell

The train that goes down the centre of State Highway !1 through Kawakawa and yes, all the cars have to wait!
The Hundtwasser toilets

A view of the Hokianga harbour mouth

Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest - a 2000 year old kauri tree)
Waitangi - the flagstaff where the Treaty was first signed

The Governor's House at Waitangi

The Marae on the Waitangi Treaty grounds

One of the caves at Waitomo

And here she is .... Sally! She loved to sit on my desk on my tool bag. I miss her sooo much

Auckland

We left Kerikeri via Hokianga district and the Kauri forests. We stopped off to se Tane Mohuta (God of the Forest) and were very impressed at the size of this 2000 year old kauri. Got to Auckland late afternoon and headed to Ashley and Andy's (my SIL's niece). We had dinner there and delicious baked chocolate marble cheesecake and headed for the Skycity hotel. It is very luxurious and we have a lovely suite.

This morning we went to Waiheke Island but it was way too expensive to go on the car ferry so we just caught the passenger ferry.

Before we left, my Mom phoned me to say that Sally wasn't doing too well. All I wanted to do was get on a plane and head home to be with her. While I was not capable of making decisions regarding the day ahead, my mom phoned back to say she had eaten and seemed to perk up so we headed off.

Around 2pm, the vet phoned me because Sally had collapsed and my mom had taken her straight in to them. The vet put her on a drip and was going to try to keep her going while I got on a plane and flew home to with with her in her last moments. After a number of telephone calls, we realised that I may not even get back in time to be with her and she wouldn't even know me. We asked the vet to wait for my mom to get back to the vet and then put my Sally to sleep. In the meantime, I was sobbing and almost losing it on the bus!

At about the time it was happening, we sat watching the sea and thinking of her at Blackpool Bay. The vet phoned to say that she had gone peacefully and we headed back into Onemara Bay to wait for a ferry back to Auckland. By this time it was 4.45pm and we had had no lunch!

We did go out to dinner tonight at Orbit which is the revolving restaurant at the Sky Tower which was lovely and we toasted my loyal furry companion. Tomorrow we head for National Park.

RIP my precious cat

Last day in Kerikeri

Tomorrow we leave Kerikeri heading back to Auckland by way of the Kauri forests and Tane Mohuta in particular.

Yesterday we went on a boat trip out to Hole in the Rock and saw a few dolphins in the bay on the way back. The weather was not that great and we certainly rocked and rolled out in the ocean but in the Bay it was pleasant enough.

We have also been to Pompallier out in Russell which was the first Catholic printing press. It was so interesting that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there. We crossed on the car ferry and that in itself was exciting as it is a drive-on, drive-off ferry. We also stopped at Okiato which is the site of the first capital of NZ. We have discovered so much history here.

Today we went to Kawakawa and went on the train that goes down the middle of the town right on SH1 - that was fun too; in fact, so much so that we rode on it a second time! Back to Kerikeri to Marsden Estate for a late lunch. "The kitchen is closed" I was informed by a rather snooty waitress, who then proceeded to tell me that we could only get an antipasto platter and started to explain what an antipasto platter is! We had one, it was $35 which was rather pricey for what we got. Give it a miss.

Thursday we plan to go to Waiheke Island. One of our aims is to do as many of the AA's 101s for Kiwis as we can. We are close to 60 now

Happy New Year from the winterless North

We're in Kerikeri having suffered through four traffic jams on Old Year's day. A journey that should have taken us an easy six hours ended up taking loser to eight. Then we stayed up until past midnight to drive into Paihia to see the fireworks at midnight. New Year's day no one could get going so we only went out around midday. We went down to the Stone Store and Kemp House on the Kerikeri inlet. The house is the oldest wooden structure in NZ and the Store was designed to be used as a shop but was used as such when it was a wooden structure.

In the late afternoon we took a drive back to Waitangi. It's just beautiful there! The grounds have been planted with lots of natives and the bird life is growing. We saw kereru and tuis. The grounds are peaceful and have a most beautiful outlook over the Bay.

Today we went on the Dune Rider to Cape Reinga. We also went to the old Kauri gum diggers fields and drove down 90 Mile Beach. The was also sand dune sledding which the boys loved. I am so glad we have now been to Cape Reinga and I'm even more pleased we went on a bus trip, rather than driving ourselves. The only complaint I have about the trip was we should have had more time at CR. We also bought and planted a native tree there and have the GPS co-ordinates so we will watch our little tree growing up.

On the way back to Kerikeri, we stopped at Mangonui fish and chip shop ...... one of those world-famous-in-NZ places: beautiful setting, not very nice fish and chips. Our local Supreme Fast Foods in Main Road sells much tastier fish and chips.

Tomorrow's plan is to take it easy again in the morning and then head to Opua to catch the car ferry across to Russell.

Photos will have to come later as I am on limited air time while we're away

Where in the world are we?

More accurately, where in NZ? Well, it's the final trip in our north to south long term plan. We left on Boxing Day (who in their right mind does that is another story) and spent a night at Waitomo Caves. The Spellbound trip is wonderful, however one of the Black Water rafting ones wasn't. Curly's Bar takes forever to serve the meal.

Next four nights in Coromandel Town - it's beautiful, but Whitianga would have been better. Waiau Waterworks is fantastic and well worth the entrance fee and the cafe was great too. Driving Creek Railway was great fun too. The next day brought rain and so we headed to the Driving Creek Cafe - unfortunately no one pointed out that it was vegetarian tasteless food only and they wanted to charge a 10% surcharge to use a credit card! If there'd been an McDs here we would have headed there afterwards. Cathedral Cove is beautiful and I am so proud that I actually walked there and back! It took me 50 minutes there and nearly an hour back and the recommended time is 45 minutes.

Tomorrow we head to KeriKeri in the Bay of Islands. Will upload photos at some other time

Fourteen!

Colin is 14! I can't believe it - just tonight Adrian and I were watching some home videos taken in 1997 and there he was such a cute little 2 year old. How the time has flown by and I wonder where he'll be in another twelve years time? He went to LaserForce with Ross, Adrian and a friend and then came home for pizza and cake. Here is he with Jacob our godson blowing out the birthday candles.

A Big Catch Up

Here's a photo of me and our nine hour old god-daughter, Erin. She's so lovely!
Reports have arrived and I'm very pleased with how both boys have done. Ross will be in streamed Maths and Streamed Science next year (Year 11) and he's really pleased too. He won Most Improved Bowls player at prize giving
Colin has improved academically since mid-year, but there is still room for improvement next year. He won Most Improved Water polo player
Colin got for his birthday, a fishing trip with Pete Lamb Fishing. They went out last night round the South Coast and were out for about six hours! He had a wonderful time even though he didn't catch anything and wants to go out again.
I am still working hard and can't wait for Friday to be rid of all of it! Then I can plan Christmas for eleven people