Cake Basics Class

Today I did a cake decorating class. I have wanted to learn how to work with fondant and today I had my opportunity. First thing we did was make bows. Mine was supposed to be a pale green but I didn't realise how little of the colouring I needed

 That meant I ended up with green hands too!

 Next step was to cover the cake in butter icing. The teacher suggested that we do a first layer, chill in the fridge and then do a second layer

 Pink fondant! Again, I used a bit more colour and ended up with a rather bright pink fondant

 As my hands show!

 Placing the stripes

 The finished cake - roses, butterflies and glitter!

I really enjoyed this class and can see myself using fondant quite a lot - even for cupcakes!

My Weight Loss

I know some people have already seen these photos but here they are again

Me on the ferry to Waiheke Island in 2010

 The same top today 16.5kgs lighter

Actually when I look at myself in that 2010 photo I can't beleive how big I was!

Daffodil Express

Four friends and I headed out last Sunday to Carterton on the Daffodil Express. Fundraising for daffodil Day (cancer) and also Plunket and St John's Ambulance

 We caught a bus to the daffodil farm - naughty girls at the back of the bus!

 A bunch of 24 daffodils for $4!

 In front of a flowering magnolia

 In front of the steam engine

 Me!

What a great day we had with lots of laughs!

Used to be two days of celebration

Yesterday should have been my 20th wedding anniversary. I couldn't sit in the one hour staff meeting at the beginning of the day, but once I started teaching it got better. All three of us went to the dentist in the afternoon with no treatments necessary! Then I had dinner with a friend last night. By the time I got home around 9.30pm I was exhausted emotionally

Then today Ross 18! When did he get to be so old? Makes me feel really older! One of his friends said he would get a chocolate mousse cake, so I suggested that they come for take aways as well. It was all a surprise to Ross and a lovely evening

His friends waiting for him

Ross arrives home to find his friends in his room

Eating Noodle Canteen take-aways

Chocolate mousse cake made specially for Ross

Birthday boy!

Tomorrow August exams start. Ross is studying; Colin is watching You Tube videos! Argh!!

Catch up

It's been school holidays and I have had a good time. Sometimes I go back thinking "Well, that was a waste of two weeks" because I have had nothing to show for it.

I have had lunch out with friends. I went to movies with a friend - Salmon Fishing in the Yemen- fabulous movie!

I have done some scrapping and filed many l/os that have been lying around. I have finished some UFOs which I will file today. I have packed some page kits for next week's scrapping.

I had an awesome seafood lunch with a friend

I did some alterations to some of my trousers - took them in 8cms! yes, I have lost 12kgs and feeling fantastic and very proud of myself

I have put the electricity, gas and telephone accounts in my number - go me!

Emotionally, I am still up and down because I did not ask for this. And I'm dreading next month as it should have been my 20th Wedding Anniversary

The weather today is dreadful, so I am going to catch up on some blog reading

The Formal

What a marvellous night! I'm sorry that you are being flooded with photos but I'm thrilled with how lovely we all looked! I was fortunate enough to have my hair done (differently form normal) and my make up professionally done so I felt great! Quite a few of the kids remarked that I looked so pretty - what an ego boost!

And my sons! Well, what can I say? They looked so handsome and I was so proud of them!

Such a long time!

Oh my word - I have neglected this poor little blog of mine! And now I come back and Blogger has changed everything - I'm so confused!

School holidays have been and gone and the next lot loom very close - yay!

I took the boys to Melbourne for Easter weekend and we had a great time

Next week is the Formal and I have TWO sons who will be dressed up and going!

In between I have done a bit of scrapping. I need to take photos and show what I have done. By the time I remember to take photos, it's getting dark though

Today

Today I celebrate how far I have travelled in this troubled year.

And I celebrate something else that I am not yet able to discuss.

At 8.30pm tonight I will celebrate with a drink and sayings "cheers" to me. Join me at the same time if you are able

Blogger comment moderation

I do not like the new blogger comment moderation!! I cannot read the letters! I tried three times to post a comment on someone's blog and have now given up as I got the letters wrong every time.

Just delete comments you don't like. I have not had comment moderation for a few years now and have had no problems (knock on wood)

An Award!

From Lainie

The Liebster Blog Award is meant for those blogs in Blog Land that have 200 or less followers. Liebster comes from German, meaning dearest or beloved but can also mean favourite. This award is such a wonderful way to show appreciation for those people who do beautiful work and inspire you but have a small following. As part of the tradition the award is passed along to five other blogs that have motivated and inspired you. To accept the award you must:

1. Link back to the person's blog who gave it to you and thank them.

2. Post the award on your blog.

3. Give the award to 5 bloggers (less than 200 followers) that you appreciate and value.

4. Leave a comment on the five blogs you chose to let them know.

Awarded to:

1. Jenny E (no not me!)

2. Shell

3. Katrina

4. Penny

5. Hilary

I could have chosen a lot more because these people all inspire me - crafty or otherwise!

More than a month later!

I feel like so much has happened yet so little

My eye op was a great success and I'm seeing better than I have for many, many years. The downside was I couldn't lift anything heavy for three weeks. Actually, the boys had to carry the groceries and the only time I was affected was I couldn't take much to scrapping two weeks ago!

Didn't matter though because I wasn't really in the right head space. I did two l/os neither of which have journalling yet. Maybe tomorrow when the weather bomb is set to hit

Both boys are enjoying school and coping well. My classes are settling down and I am enjoying most of them

It's my mom's birthday on Monday. We're going to SweetPea on Sunday and I have ordered flowers for Monday. She is struggling to settle but it's early days yet

And apart from that, not much activity in our house!

What's been happening?

Not much really. So much for my birthday month though. The biggest thing that happened (apart from my awesome birthday) was moving my mother from her small house to a retirement apartment. She went from two bedrooms, a large living area, big storage cupboard and a garage to an en-suite bedroom and kitchenette/living area.

This meant lots and lots of trips to the Hospice op shop and Trash Palace (a shop at the dump). She moved in on 16th January and even after that we spent a fair amount of time cleaning and getting rid of stuff at her old house. Two weeks later and she is almost settled and unpacked and is even joining in some of the activities there!

For me - my employment issues are still ongoing and I have a meeting with my lawyer on Monday. I have been struggling with my vision for a while now (read a few years) and finally I have a diagnosis - cataracts! The left eye one is quite bad, reducing my vision to -8 so I have a cataract operation on 9th February. This is all in addition to everything else that is going on!

I'm looking forward to school going back and getting into a routine where my mind will be occupied and busy

2011 NCEA Results

In NZ, students sit external exams at the end of Yr 11, Yr 12 and Yr 13 ie the last three years of school. Not all assessments are external, there are a number that are internally assessed. There are three levels of "passing" Achieved, Achieved with Merit and Achieved with Excellence. To Achieve, a student must get 80 credits including some Literacy and Numeracy. To get Merit, 50 of those credits must be at the Merit level and the same for Excellence.

Further, a student can gain an Endorsed Subject

So results for 2011:

Colin: Achieved Level 1, Merit Endorsement in Maths

Ross: Achieved with Merit level 2. Merit Endorsement in Economics and Chemistry and Excellence Endorsement for Maths (in fact third overall in Maths)

So proud of both of them given the c**p year they had! Roll on 2012 and even better results

Birthday!

What a day! Two friends invited me for high tea ..... and then we just carried on!

The presents I got from Tracy and Jo

We started at Sweet Pea and had high tea - it was so delicious. Lovely tea (and I am so not a tea drinker!) and super cakes and savouries And our colour co-ordination was totally unplanned!

Then we moved on to cocktails! We got two free - one for my birthday and the last one because we had tried every one on the menu! (There were only ten in total - so not so bad!!)

And then a movie - The First Grader - a bit heavy for the day, but still very enjoyable

Then dinner and a bottle of wine

Then we headed back for a few more cocktails and finished our evening just after 11.30pm. I had a wonderful evening supported by two awesome friends!

Day 4, 5, 6

So, BD Month Day 4 - not too much exciting other than dropping a huge Honda boot load of stuff at Hospice. Then I think my big treat was going to the gym. I have not been in a gym for many, many years and was very concerned it would be populated by young tanned blondes in fluorescent pink lycra! That is not the case at all and so I am really enjoying what I'm doing.

BD Month Day 5 - again a drop off day - this time to the SPCA and Ronald MacDonald house. This was quite a big trip as it was on the other side of town. Then my friend Lynley is back from her holiday so we had a lovely long walk at 5pm. She said to me that she thought I was not as unfit as I think I am!

BD Month Day 6 - my friend Karen arrived this morning with a lovely card and this:

We took four boxes to Summerset Village for my mom. Then we went and had coffee ...a treat! I got home and there was a birthday card in the mail box from Mandy and a big box at the door:

One of the great parts was the note that said "Happy, happy birthday to our Jen" - I just had a little cry when I read that! This is from my wonderful in-laws in Durban! My SIL Jenny is one of the most wonderful people in the world and if it was not for her I would have gone insane last year. She was at the end of Skype for me and even at the end of the phone when I needed her. And then not to forget when her hubby (my BIL) came to visit us in November. I love them all so much!

Update - And there I was sitting having a good chat to my friend Mels in the US and another parcel arrived! Again from my ILs in South Africa! What a great birthday it's starting out as!

The box as I was unwrapping it

And the chocolates inside

Day 3

So yesterday was not a very good day: a man was supposed to come to give me a quote for laying lawn and he forgot. I did go down to my mom and gave her a hand sorting some photos. Some of them we just threw away because we had absolutely no idea who was in the photos!

Then in the afternoon/evening I just lost the plot completely! I was so emotional and upset that all I could think of was getting two pieces of fish and chips for the boys for dinner! I didn't even care about myself! And nowhere could I see anything that was a "birthday month treat" either.

Today has dawned better: I went to Spotlight (didn't buy anything) and came home to finish my Christmas l/o.I am going to do a ham for supper because then we will have leftovers for lunches/dinners this coming week.

My Christmas 2011 l/o

Here's my "coffee pot" l/o - the best present I can remember for a long time

2012

Happy New Year everyone! My hope is that this year is much much better than last year for me especially.

Anyway, it my birthday soon and like other people I'm having a birthday month. So what did I do today for my birthday month treat? I made pancakes for the boys and the friends for breakfast! Now I can hear you wondering why that was a treat for ME! Here's why:

Ross asked if he could have some friends over for a bbq and I was said okay. The problem was that the weather was so bad, but they decided to carry on. I got some breadrolls, made a huge potato bake and bought some meat. It ended up being Ross, five friends and Ross invited Colin to join them.

As they arrived, they all said hello. They were downstairs all night I was upstairs. They opened my wine, said thank you for what I'd provided (they all brought stuff too) and thanked me for having them there - all before they ate. When it was time to serve, they called me. One of the boys had done the cooking and they were sharing out the meat and were so kind to me giving me some of the nicer food. All evening they checked to see that I had enough to eat

Just before midnight, Ross got some glasses out and then called me to join them. They had some sparkling wine, I had my own. Both my boys hugged and kissed me and two of the visiting boys did too

I was so proud of my boys! I had a great evening even though it was the first time in 21 years I had been apart from Adrian on New Year's Eve

So this morning I got up and made pancakes for them! They had all slept over last night and I decided that I would treat them. Only problem is I didn't get any photos! I was sitting in my bed when they were leaving and they would oh so politely knock on the door to say good bye and thank you.

Now to plan a birthday treat for myself every day AND remember to take photos

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