Living my dream

Decisions

Andy had a chat to me tonight about reading my blog today and being surprised about me having my rant. I mean I rant about things to him all the time, but I guess he wasn't expecting to see it here. LOL. I guess one rant in just over a month for me isnt tooooo bad. LOL.

So anyway, here's something positive... I've made a decision today.

A little while ago I was cooking the kids dinner when a runner went zooming down the walkway next to our place. I remember looking out at her and thinking about all those times when I used to do that and really missing it.

Talking to Andy the other day I realised just how much I missed having my training goals and that just because I have kids and am pregnant doesn't mean I have to stop having goals and stop training....well maybe until I've had this wee one. LOL.

So I got hold of the people who used to train me and had a good chat with them today. Its not about loosing weight, but having a focus and something to work towards. I've always wanted to do the NY marathon, and the London marathon. I've also contemplated the Rotorua several times plus many other things which are WAY OUT THERE (Andy don't read this part.....anyone heard of the GOBE march? Its a huge long run across the Gobe desert. Takes around 7 days or something.....WOW!!). I just wanted to see how realistic it would be to take part in something later this year after having a baby in Aug. And its a goer. The person I spoke to doesn't know me, but his boss does and he's gonna have a chat with him and get back to me with details. I'm really excited about it. Realistically NY *probably* isn't going to work, but there are other events, other things happening which I can work towards and at least have some fun with. Yay. Can't wait.

Now we just have to see what kind of baby we get. Knowing me, now I've made this decision, it'll be a shocker! LOL.

Time for a rant....

What is it with the drivers on our roads these days??????

Ok, setting the scene. I had been to see my sister and her kids where we had dinner, bathed the kids and put them in the car to come home. Great afternoon and really relaxed. Yay. Driving along the motorway, in the fast lane, at the speed limit (maybe 5kms over??), overtaking a series of cars/trucks when one of the trucks (heavily laden with wood) comes zooming up behind me and sits not more than a foot away from my bumper. Now lets not forget its dark, raining and I'm a pregnant woman in the car with 2 x 2 year olds. It gave me the s...s!!!!!!

I finished overtaking, put my indicator on and pulled over and the guy nearly clipped me cause he was soooooo busy trying to get past, only to pull in behind me and slow RIGHT down.

HUH???????????????

I just don't get it. Was he really in such a hurry that he had to do that to me? To anyone? I wasn't going slowly, had nearly finished and about to pull over. He could have killed us. I'm still shaking.

Anyway, I was so annoyed I took note of the name of the company on the side of the truck and the truck number and I'm just about to send them a fax. I don't normally do stuff like this, but its the mothering instincts coming out and what s/he did just isn't right.

Oh, and while I'm at it, since when do employees text you to say they're not coming in? Am I really old fashioned or is this just plain bad manners?

Anyway, angry rant over.

Excited rant......

I got a parcel the other day which had a heap of new rub ons in it. Wow, can you believe the type of rubons out there now????? They are sooooo cool. I got a heap of 'doodle' type ones with arrows, hearts, etc plus others that were colourful frames etc. Really really really cool. Plus some nifty dotted flowers, and some Maya Road paisley ribbon slides. These are so great and I had to use them straight away.

Here's a pic....

Food glorious food

It was my nieces 5th birthday party today. Wow. I can still remember when she was born! Now she's off to school. It was pouring with rain so the party was held at my sisters play centre. It has just been 'done up' and we were the first to use it. Wow. Was soooooooo good! Poor wee Sarah was a bit overawed by it all to start with. Made me wonder how she would go at daycare which starts in about a month. ARGH! But I digress. All the food was put out and our two were into it. They love their food. And they certainly take after one member of the Ashby's (aye Dad?!). My two were the LAST to leave the table and must've had at least 3 helpings each. Now you are talking to a woman who has grown up on junk food and constantly fights a (loosing) battle with her weight. So while I allow the odd bit of chocolate, or junk food, they only drink water and mostly eat really well. I'm even proud to say they love their fruit and veges!!!! Much better than their Mum!!! So here is a pic of my two enjoying the feast. Thanks Vonny for a wonderful morning!!! Happy birthday wee Kathryn.

So anyway, all this eating got me thinking about food (more, lol) and my favourite meals. Tonight we had one of them. Yummo. It was a chicken/mango salad which Andy saw on tv one night. We've had it a bit lately and its divine AND more importantly really healthy.

My other favourite is "Hot chicken curry salad". Hmmmm, interesting name?! Well its an interesting meal. Main ingredients are chicken, apple, yoghurt, chutney, curry powder and mayonaise (lite of course ;)). So the next time I'm making these meals, watch out! The cameras gonna be out and a LO will be done.

Now I got tagged by the delightful Ruth so will be following up on that in the next couple of days and I also have to show off some gorgeous new treasures which turned up on my doorstep the other day.

Happy Anzac day everyone - haven't touched on this as its all a bit close to home right now with other events that happened last week. But I hope you managed a few moments to remember the wonderful men and women (and horses - yep, NZ had a huge contingent of horses) who served in our countries military over the years and currently. Whether we agree with war or not, they are heroes one and all.

Take care.

The weekend

Well, its been a good but tiring weekend. The funeral is over, life can start to get back on track. It was a good day. After, we spent time with Mum at her place and it was the first time we had spent time as a whole for a long time. I got the camera out and we took a couple of pics. Heres one I like...

The kids have been wanting to go to a farm for AGES so we troddled off yesterday morning. Thankfully before too much rain. Butterfly creek is out by the airport and really great. There is a butterfly house where all these butterflies  fly free and can land on you (little bit scary for the kids), plus a wee train, plus the farm. Its expensive, but worth it and you can even get a year pass which means after the second visit, its basically free. We finally got organised and arranged this. Yay!!!

Andy tidied up all the kids toys last night. Wow, what a job. Threw out a heap of things that were broken or had parts missing or whatever, put away ones they don't use and basically made it more manageable. Also found some we had forgotten about. LOL! So got those ones out. Must take a pic as it'll probably never look like this again! LOL!

Now I just have to put my thinking cap on about what to do this week - with school holidays still on, alot of the 'events' we go to each week are closed. Hmmmmm. Not liking the look of this weather either. Guess that's just winter. 

Hope you had a good weekend too. Catch ya.

Timely reminder

Check out the newsletter on BlueBazaar. Leanne Ryan has done an article on keeping your scrapbooks on track. It was a timely reminder about why I started scrapping as this is exactly what I've been going through over the last 2 weeks. Yep, even before Nana died, I had found a heap of older photos (5-10 years ago??) that just begged to be scrapped, so I did them. It was the most fun going back over past events and recording that little piece of history. Something that will be forgotten in the mad rush of todays world.

To add to my feeling of good will about scrapping historically, last night when I was talking with DH he said out of the blue "I really love what you do" I didn't connect it with anything so said whaddaya mean? And we had a short but amazing conversation about how he loves that I'm creating these pages about my/our family and its history and the little stories that we would otherwise not know.

Leanne, thanks for your article its come at a really great time for me and I really love what you said.

Oh, and just checking out 2peas and found a similar thread by a lady who had a lightbulb moment. Check out her blog with the LO on it....Lightbulp moment by Joanna

Yummy yummy Tarisota

arrived this afternoon. I'm so lucky. Actually its been a good couple of days mail wise. I got some stuff from America yesterday (Heidi Swapp fuzzy rubons!!!!!), then today got the Tarisota collection and SM. Am about to go off and read it while DH feeds/baths the kids.

Actually my eyes are tired this evening. We had the audio visual presentation today and it was beautiful. I'm so glad I saw it now and not for the first time tomorrow. I cried bucket loads. I also wrote my eulogy - a short but lovely tribute which I'll say tomorrow. Usually tired eyes means I'm stressed. Hmmmm, can see why they're like that now! LOL.

And I think I thought of a title for that LO.... Early days in our family, or something like this? It was a little catchier when I thought of it earlier???? Just gotta get it finished to be honest.

Later.

The best Wednesday......

Well...since last Wednesday anyway...

Andy came home today and it was magnificent. The kids and I went out to the airport and they just love looking at all the planes (yep, no mention of Dad! LOL). He brought back a heap of Thomas engines and even a Thomas station for our Thomas table. Wow! The kids were spoilt but loved it.

Then this arvo we (Mum, sis, Aunties, Uncle, and cousins) all got together to pick photos to go in the audio visual for Nana's funeral. There were some really amazing ones and definitely alot of wonderful memories. We get to see it tomorrow before its finalised for sure which will be good. We can prepare before the big day.

And one of the best parts was showing them all my LO's of Nana, Grandad and their lives. They all thought it was amazing. Even my young male cousin (must be around 18/19???). They also all asked a couple of times whether I was bringing it to the funeral for people to look at. I had hoped to, but to be asked was pretty darn cool. So tonight I've been busily trying to finish one so I can do another tomorrow before Friday. The more the merrier right? Only thing is I'm stuck on a title. I just can't get past what I need to put in print right there on the front of the LO. LOL. The pic is of my Nana, Mum and her sisters when they were young playing on their front lawn. Its got the house they lived in, so any ideas would be gratefully welcomed.

Ok, better go see if some inspiration hits. Catch y'all later.

Thank you

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes since yesterday. As those who have lost someone will know, you can go along fine for a couple of hours, then it suddenly hits you and you find yourself in tears or laughing out loud walking down the street. I'm sure my kids think I'm a total nutter. I've tried to tell them whats going on, but at 2, death is such a vague concept I don't think they understand. However today I showed them some pics and LOs of Nana and they squealed with excitement, grinning at 'Gran'. It was heartwarming and so lovely.

Nothing else is happening here right now. So here's the last pic taken of Nana and I at her birthday party last Oct. Love ya Nana.

Nana died this morning

Even though we had been expecting it and in fact were told she wouldn't last until Xmas, it has still come as a shock.

As Andy is away and Mum was looking after the kids this morning I met her at Nana's rest home where we all went up. Aunty Lorraine and Aunty Jill were there and Vonny came in a bit later.

I remember seeing Grandad when he died and how it just wasn't Grandad. It was the same this morning with Nana. Her spirit was gone and just the shell was left.

We had a few laughs, shed a few tears and Matt and Sarah were so good. I'm glad they were there and part of it.

Her funeral is on Friday so I imagine it will be a time of grieving and remembrance. But until then, here are a couple of LO's I did of my Nana last year .....

Who opened the cat door?

Most of you probably know about our killer cats who like to bring us special presents on a regular basis. The 'best' present is a live rat, next is a live mouse or bird and last is any of the above that they've already killed.

The only way we've been able to deal with this successfully is to keep the cat door open (one way). They can get out, but not in. Fine for the day when we are here and can let them in, but also safe for at night when we're asleep, so we don't wake up with a rat running across our chests. ARGH!

Well somehow the cat door was opened yesterday????? and at 1.30am I wake up to hear Pud doing 'that' meow. I jump out of bed wondering where he is and what he's got. Thankfully still on the stairs so its contained (a bit), now what and where is it???? Ok, its a mouse. Whew. Easier to deal with. They're alot less mobile. Grabbed an icecream container, put it over said mouse. Whew! Now what? LOL! So I find an OLD record (for the young 'uns out there records are what we used to have before CDs), slide it under the ice cream container and put the whole package outside. Lock the cat door and go back to bed. Yes! I dealt with it, quickly, easily and can now go back to sleep.....LOL! Nope, I sit in bed awake for about another hour. SIGH.

Here's an old LO I did of my two gorgeous cats. Who are both hunters, especially of each other.

Pigtails & MMM

My little girl has hair long enough for pigtails now! I can't believe it. Abby was here and put them up (I tried yesterday unsuccessfully!) and I've gotta say she looks so cute. Ahhhh, another wee milestone......

There have been a few posts on 2Peas lately about the Memory Makers Masters competition 2007. Its actually not that far away. The cut off date is earlier than last year....entries to be postmarked July 31st or earlier. I've been thinking about this since last year and was always really keen to enter. Now, I'm just not sure. I mean I loved it last year. It pushed me and I really challenged myself. I tried new or different things and I STILL love my LO's. But (there's always a but). I never know about my work. Its just not consistent enough for this type of thing. I think *some* of it is good (its getting published so that's gotta mean something.... right?) but what about the rest? I think I'm thinking too much about it and just need to see how I go, after all if you're not in you can't win. Because of my indecision I'm thinking I might hold off putting any LO's here until closer to the time when I've either a) decided to enter and know what I'm going to use b) have decided not to enter. I may even ask some opinions along the way. So if I do its time to be truthful.....ok?!

Alrighty, time for the kids to get up. We're off to see Granny and Grandad and then later on Poppa & Pene are coming for dinner, so they're going to be busy wee beavers this afternoon.

Later...

Bubs picture attached...

So today is dedicated to our bump.....I've had some issues with bubs and pain lately but worse this morning. Feeling like I had food poisoning, without any of the throwing up etc. Just the nausea and cramps. So after a walk (hoping to give me a bit of energy - hmmmm pushing 50 kgs of buggy and 2 year olds?! LOL) I realised that these cramps were actually coming at pretty regular intervals. Like 10 mins. Hmmmmm. So I speak with my midwife, who very kindly comes in to see me on her way home and we've ruled some things out. She thinks it might be a growth spurt and the good news is bubs is fine....although with all the kicking its doing I kinda knew that! Just wasn't sure what the pain was?! We have no reason to think its anything more. But I've been told to rest. hahahahaha. After she left, I took a much needed photo of my bump. I'm currently measuring 26+ weeks and I'm 24.5 so that's fine, but big. Thankfully bubs isn't all of this bump. Apparently I've got a lot of water in there, so thats ok. Anyway, enough gross stuff. Here it is.....

I'm still working on that LO I mentioned the other day. Its all done I just have to stick all the bits together and have been too tired. How sad is that?! LOL. Hopefully will get it finished tomorrow. I've got a class tonight so it won't be happening then. Hope everyones having a good easter. Til later......

Another "Old Picture" LO

So today I did this LO. This was probably my favourite photo (non professional) of my sisters wedding. I love how much fun we were all having. It used to be in a box, but was found in my wee search over the weekend.

The colours are a bit drab as the flowers on here are REALLY 3D and so the scan let lots of light in (even with me putting a towel over it). And its all straight IRL. Hmmmm, will have to have a wee play around with this whole scanning of LO's.

Saw an interesting thread today about scrapping past boyfriends. It got me thinking. I haven't done any and to be honest, wouldn't really want to of 'him', however, we did do a lot of travelling together to amazing places and I might one day want to do them? (to be honest I've got so many current photos (yep Janine, I changed the wording! LOL) when will I get the time to go backwards? But that's another story!) So what would you do? Alot of the girls posting were talking about jealous DH's, which I found unusual. So I talked to Andy to see how he would feel. It was a really enlightening conversation and one I'm glad we had. Also I was right in how I thought he would think so that was nice. It did beg the question, if I do any of mine, do I then have to do his? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, far too much deep and meaningful right now. Off to bed.

C U.

Just a quickie

Thanks for all your comments about my cycling accident LO (I don't have time for this). I was really pleased to have it done, but something just didn't feel finished, you know what thats like, so I had a wee play and here is the *final* version. I'm thrilled with it now (notice the pink chipboard triangle and the dead space thats been filled now?)

Journalling reads: It was Sunday morning just before Xmas and I was off to do a 2-hour ride as part of my training for Coast to Coast. I remember parking at the bottom of the Greenhithe bridge thinking “Ok, time to get on with this…so much to do today”. After an hour I turned around and about 10 mins into the journey home is all I remember. I DO remember approaching the bottom of this hill though. Just a little one, one more hill closer to home. The next thing I remember is waking up in an ambulance, then various snippets over the next few days…..seeing Andy at the hospital entrance and going into my first bradycardia episode. I still don’t remember much, not until well after I got home. In fact I have no recollection of the accident itself. I did however have a dream which was totally black except for the sounds of the accident. The screeching brakes and breaking glass were horrifying. I’m glad I can’t remember it. At some point I was told I had been hit by a small truck. You see there was a car following the truck which became impatient. It went to overtake the truck ….on a yellow line, on the brow of a hill….a receipe for disaster. Sure enough a car was coming the other way. The first car swerved to avoid it, and the truck driver automatically swerved to avoid being hit by the car. That’s when I got collected. Wrong place, wrong time. I still feel sorry for the truck driver. The car however, I have no sympathy for. It didn’t bother stopping! The truck connected with my back tyre throwing me up onto its windscreen, my head smashing it. I was then thrown forward onto the road where my elbow ground itself down on the gravel. Later I was told I had a broken elbow, minor internal injuries, head injuries (thank goodness for my helmet) and lots of grazes and bruises. My dream to enter the Coast to Coast by the time I was 30 was over. I was lucky though. My emergency contact details were written in my helmet so Andy was at the hospital even before I was. There was also a lovely American woman who stopped to help. She told the policeman that I kept repeating “I don’t have time for this”. Her reply was “well luv you’re just gonna have to make time”. I still think about this and how appropriate it was and how typical of me. This was a pivotal point in my life. I had to reassess a few things and I’m constantly aware now of how fragile life is. There is a saying which goes something along the lines of enjoy life, you never know when you’ll get hit by a truck. Well, I WAS hit by a truck and am very lucky to survive. I won’t forget that.

Haven't blogged for a couple of days, so will do a proper post later.

CU.

Its that time of the year

Well I've had a very average day today, and talking to lots of other people they are having days/weeks like that too. I'm putting it down to the change of seasons, lack of sun, colder weather coming on.....lets hope so.

However, my day isn't great for another reason....do you remember me talking about spending the weekend doing jobs around the house to get it ready to put on the market. Well we did that. And if I do say so myself, it looks pretty darn good. However when I came home this morning I found our neighbours deck pulled half apart. Now that's fine you'd say until you realised her house is attached to ours. So if we put ours on the market, people would take one look at hers and wonder what was wrong with ours. Talking to our real estate agent who has had this happen before and it just doesn't work. ARGH!!!!! I was so excited to finally be able to get moving on this darn property and to even hopefully get out of here before baby comes, now we definitely won't be doing that! I just want to cry.....again. I guess you gotta laugh right? And at least our house is a really really good winter house!!!

So I finished off a LO to make me feel a bit better. And here it is. Simple but it tells the story. You see, in the weekend I went through some old boxes of photos. I was looking for something (and I can't remember what now! LOL) and I found these ones. They are of a cycling accident I had. I wasn't even scrapping then, so am very lucky to have the pics. I think my parents knew it was serious and wanted to have a record of it. Who knows, but here it is. The paper is more from Evanas rak (thanks again E).