Living my dream

He's on the move

And just in time for a weeks camping. uh huh! LOL. Yep, Dan started to move lots yesterday. No, he's not actually crawling. LOL. I'd say its more of a caterpiller crawl. He inches his knees up then lurches and face plants into what he wants. Its so funny. But makes it easier for him to pick up what hes after if he's actually on top of it! LOL. Its funny walking out of the room with him in one place and coming back to find him somewhere else. Its a beautiful stage of development. And I know he's still a looooong way from crawling properly, but its that first stage. And I love it.... and I feel sad cause it means hes growing up and well its just one of those times where you have immense pride mixed with sadness. Anyway, tried to catch a couple of shots and due to speed (when he lurches) one of them is a bit blurry, but it gives a great idea. Here ya go.....

Watch out for some news coming up soon - something exciting scrap wise.

My childrens first photos

I don't know if you remember, but a while back I talked about going to K-mart at some ridiculously early time in the morning to buy some digital cameras for $69. Well the kids got one for Xmas (and I gave one to a niece), but we only just got it up and running (after much nagging) today. Matt especially loved it. He basically took charge of the camera and wouldn't let it go. Even when he fell asleep in the buggy, he was gripping it tightly. He would carefully put it back in its case when it wasn't being used, and learnt very quickly how the buttons worked so he could review the photo hes just taken and then take another one. Now this kid is only 3 and he's more onto it than me! I was so impressed. Sarah enjoyed it for a little bit, but it was really Matt who was fascinated by it. In fact when Sarah and Andy went down to pick some lettuce leaves for dinner, Matt got all upset when he wasn't quick enough to take the photo as he was taking it out of the case so they had to 'stage' it so he could take another. Hmmmmm, doesn't sound like anyone I know?! LOL. So without further ado, I would like to introduce you to Matt and Sarahs first ever photos......

Matts:

Sarahs:

Oh and check out our lettuces in Matts staged photo.

Note: I haven't altered these at all. They are as they came out of the camera. Just love my budding photographers!

Oh and hey, I've been meaning to do this for AGES! Yvonne tagged me so here you go....

A= Available - No
B= Best Friend - Jane
C= Cake or pie - Cake - preferably chocolate, with really thick icing! Ahhhhhhh, cake  :)
D= Drink of choice - Coke
E= Essential item you use everyday - Internet/camera/childrens music/running shoes and more recently gardening gloves. LOL!
F= Favorite colour - No fav. Love anything thats bright
G= Gummy bears or worms - Neither really, but if I had to choose, gummy bears
H= Hometown - Auckland
I= Indulgences - couple of hours to myself.
J= January or February - Feb. All the hype has died down and its my hubby's birthday
K= Kids and Names - Matt and Sarah plus Daniel. And thats IT! LOL.
L= Life is incomplete without?   My husband, friends, exercise, scrapping
M= Marriage date - Sept
N= Number of siblings - 3
O= Oranges or apples - Oranges
P= Phobias or Fears - haha. Trying to overcome them - spiders, drowning, flying but it doesn't stop me flying down to Ch/Ch to compete in a race where I could potentially die from drowning! I refuse to let them ruin my day. LOL!
Q= Favorite Quote - Depends on the day
R= Reason to smile - We mowed the lawns yesterday and they look AMAZING so Andy and I went for a run in the rain on them tonight. Who said we were too old for romance?!
S= Season - All
T= Tag 3 or 4 people - No one specific, if you wanna give it a go, do, its fun.
U= Unknown fact about me - I make really good fudge
V= Vegetable you don't like - All. I only eat salad type veges or some stuff that is raw
W= Worst habit - eating when I'm bored.
X= X-rays - many many many. LOL.
Y= Your favorite food - chocolate, but I'm trying really hard not to like it so much. Sigh.
Z= Zodiac Sign - Libran.

Happy anniversary for tomorrow Auckland. Enjoy the holiday you Aucklanders.

Getting there

Hey, I'm still alive. LOL. Actually I feel much better. Still quite woozy and tired, but not sore. Yay!

And better still my LO for No 8 Wired is finished and on the blog. This fortnights dare is all about circles. Use them on your LO, make it your theme, or just whatever you think of. Mine was about going back to my first home. And how life seems to take you back, full circle. You can see it below, or go check out the blog and see everyone elses too! We've got some new contributors whose LO's are gorgeous and a prize from the lovely Lisa at Scrapbooking by design so go check it out.

Also did this one recently. Just love this smile Sarah gets and love how my sister Lisa captured this photo of her cheekily poking her head out the door while a water fight was going on all around her. Too cute. Oh, forgot to add I've used an idea from Sally Mitchell who used the Heidi Swapp photo corners as arrows on a recent LO in FK. Thanks Sal.

Other news: Pud has gone missing again. Jeepers this cat is giving me grief. I miss him and just want him to come back! I'm hoping I'll find him on another walk and this time a collar will be going on him with our name and number and strict instructions NOT to feed him!

Til later..... 

Missing.....one brain.....please return to owner asap

Well, there is a reason this owners brain has turned to mush. According to my doctor, she *thinks* I have 'scarlet fever'. OMG! I thought illness' like this were relegated to the 1800's! Anyway, I'm now on antibiotics and it will hopefully pass in a few days. Meanwhile my glands are the size of watermelons, my throat feels like its made of sandpaper, my head feels like its going to explode and my muscles are so achy its not funny. I've been told to go to bed and not get up! Yeah right with 3 kids under 4?! LOL. Anyway, we're managing thanks to Vonny and Abby. Updated to add that the doctor called back to confirm the cultures came back and yes, this is what I do have!

I got the first inkling something was up on Sat night when I got a sore throat. But went ahead with the duathlon Vonny and I had been working towards. Spent the rest of the day gardening and then collapsed in the evening (almost literally).

Still, glad I did the duathlon. Man I smiled the whole way around. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing these events. Now I'm not meant to be here, so I'm gonna leave it at that. But here are some pics from the day. And yep, it was even better than I ever imagined having my own children there cheering me on. Wow.

PS: Andy just dragged me outside to see the comet (yes I know I'm meant to be in bed, but this is a once in a lifetime experience!). If you haven't seen it, make sure you do. Its amazing. Did you know that tail is meant to be MILLIONS of kms long?! Talk about feeling small and insignificant in this huge big universe of ours!

PPS: Our fence starts getting built tomorrow. Yeah! Soon I can leave all the doors and windows open and the kids can run around without me watching their every single step. Whewee.

The cat came back....

Isn't there a song that goes "daddadada and the cat came back" (excuse the singing! LOL). Either way, we've got Pud back!

Julie and I went for our normal weekly walk and decided to go backwards this time. As we were coming down the hill past my old house at the end of our walk, we were chatting away 10 to the dozen when across the road came a meow, meow, meow. I couldn't believe it. In effect he'd been missing for approx 5 weeks (bar the 2 hours we had him home just after the move). He had obviously heard my voice and come to say hello. Well again I grabbed him and walked. But this time we went back to Jules house to grab her cat cage. Blow me down with a feather if it wasn't missing. Murphy's law right? So luckily she gave me a lift back home. Andy was as surprised as I was, but this time we made sure he'd stay longer. We managed to keep him inside for 3 days and nights, then late yesterday afternoon, we let him out. We wandered around the garden with him as he explored, then left him to it. He was so good. He came and went all afternoon. Taking time for a nap under the table and lots of cuddles. So glad he's back.

We've had a heap of stuff going on these last few days. The kids daycare started up again. Whew! So needed that. Both them and me. LOL. They loved it and came home tired and happy.

We also got a skip in and Abby and her Mum have spent two days helping us clear the section. It was still a big mess down the bottom after apparently already having two skips filled before we brought it?! OMG, I can't believe how big the spider was that surprised me when I was clearing some stuff (I swear it was about to jump out and bite me! LOL). Anyway, we found lots of wildlife. UGH. I forgot what it was like to live with so many trees. And they managed to clear away ALOT of stuff. We've still got a heap to work on. I think it could keep us fully occupied for years to come. But we'll get it to a managable stage, then just maintain. Yeah!

Sarah also got her fingers caught in the door on Wed. Not fun. She screamed (as you can imagine!) and she has a lovely red mark across one of her fingernails. Wonder if she'll lose it?

So there is other stuff happening. This weekend I'm taking part in a small duathlon. I'm really looking forward to it. The distances are smaller than what I've done in the past, but are such a great start to getting me back into exercise and achieving goals in this area. I'm actually really loving getting back on the bike, walking and doing weights. So good.

Scrapping wise, there are some cool things coming up. Still to be disclosed, but will be fun! What I can tell you about is No 8 Wired. Its back this week and the dare is way cool. Go check it out Friday night for the actual dare and first LO. I'm still working on mine. Its one of those ones that started off as one idea and has morphed into something quite different. LOL!

OOoooo, and this morning we're off to Bob the Builder and Barney! Can't wait! Then I'm looking after Vonny's 3 as she's not too well. Should be for an interesting afternoon. Wish me luck!

There is way more that's been going on in our part of the world, but for now, I've gotta go. The kids are getting restless with Mum on the computer and Dad getting breakfast.

Have a great day, looks like its gonna be another scorcher.

Note to self

• Today Daniel got up on his hands and knees
• Two days ago we started feeding him solids twice a day
• We survived a day and night with 6 children in our care

OMG Two posts in one day

I haven't done this for a while! Two whole posts in one little day. LOL.

But hey, I've just finished another page and just wanted to share. Its been a while! LOL.

So here it is. In the move I happened across a box titled "Trina's teenage memorabilia". Cor blimey. I went through it and was taken back to all those years ago and found some wonderful things. As happens, I found these photos of when I was a Rotary exchange student in Port Pirie Australia (about 200kms north of Adelaide). I travelled there for one term of the school year and the girl I was staying with came and stayed with me for the following term. Lets just say its wasn't the most beautiful of friendships that she and I developed, however I did make some other friends who were very cool. We stayed in touch for a long time, until moves meant we lost contact......so if anyone knows any of these people please sing out! I'd love to make contact again.

Main journalling is in the file folder, with lots of bullet point memories in the information folder on top of the file folder.

Check out those kiwi earings! I sure don't remember being that patriotic?! LOL.

Big thanks to Paula for the gorgeous crate paper used here. She gave it to me in a secret santa a few weeks back and it just matched the colours so perfectly. THANKS!

And another thank you.....a few weeks back I put up a LO titled Hongi. Well, I was sitting here thinking about thanking Paula and I realised I hadn't thanked someone else....Michelle TW. Thanks so much for your help with the journalling on my Hongi LO. I couldn't have done it without you and really really do appreciate you taking the time to help me. Cheers!

Oh, and wish us luck for tonight/tomorrow morning. We're looking after my sisters children so they can celebrate their 10th wedding anniversay. So far so good, but we've still gotta get through tomorrow. LOL. 6 kids under 6. Gulp.

Thanks

Thanks for all your encouraging posts about my 'bad' day. I think we all know that we're not the only one who goes through this stuff, but when you're in the middle of it, it feels like you are totally alone! And it also feels like it will last forever. Thankfully mine hasn't. I know it will come back. It always does aye?! LOL. But for now things are ok.

I think two things changed.

Me and me. LOL. I remember listening to Michael J Fox in an interview one time. He was talking about having Parkinsons and being happy and how you have to wake up every morning and CHOOSE how you are going to be that day. You choose to be happy and confident. You choose to deal with situations better. It doesn't mean life doesn't throw crap at you, just that you choose to deal with it better.

So I choose to be confident and happy. And it worked.

I also realised that with all the move, Xmas, NY, packing and unpacking etc etc etc I just hadn't spent much time with my babies. We had been running around like headless chickens trying to get everything done. Now, that's not unusal, LOL, but kids can't handle that. They need some of our undivided attention each and every day. Even just 15 mins according to one study I've heard about.

So Thurs afternoon I stood and pushed the kids on their swings. We chatted about flying and touching the spiders webs (note to self - get rid of spiders webs, one day), we pretended we were birds and flapped our wings to go higher and higher. We did 'high 5's' with our feet and I managed to relax and laugh with them. It was magical. Something so simple. And I learnt from it.

So that's our little world back on the right axis. For now. Whew.

Hey, I reread an email I got from a friend at Xmas time yesterday. It was really funny and so appropriate for us tired and harassed mothers, so I decided I just had to share it. Ok, ok, so its out of date now, but its really relevant to my current ramblings so here you go....

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mum all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children
on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold
sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on
the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over
several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red
crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and
who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple,
which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze;
but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle
in the grocery store.  I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine
somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint
resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television
that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a

refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can
hide to talk on the phone.
On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes,
Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't

fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the
use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the
living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice
seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be
heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough
time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the
luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being
served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten
the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a
vegetable?
It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could
coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as

if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet
under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back.

Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and
come in and dry off so you don't catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave
crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always, MUM...!

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my
children young enough to believe in Santa for many years to come.

Thanks for hanging out with me. ta ta for now.

PS: Heres a pic of Dan and I hanging out

10th Jan 2007

Yep, the 10th AGAIN! LOL. And this time I'm putting up Andy's fav shot. I like it, but not sure if its the 'best' shot? But it does tell a dozen different stories. Either way its darn cute (if I do say so myself).

So today was much better. Maybe cause I was more relaxed? Who knows? But there wasn't anything that 'had' to be done. We went to see Matt and Sarah's 'best friend' from daycare and her Mum is lovely. I enjoy the time we spend with this family.

Plus my Mum came over and hung out with us. It was great. She brought the kids some toys cause I don't want her bringing lots of lollies. LOL. And Sarah just loved her torch. Matt carried his diggers around all afternoon and ran out of hands for things. Made for interesting dynamics when he wanted something else. LOL.

And here's Mum with our smiley boy.

Although I'm not too happy with him right now. After all my skiting on here the other day he hasn't taken a single bottle since. WHAT THE?! Whadda ya doing boyo?

His solids are going great guns though. He opens his little mouth like a bird and thrusts his whole body towards the spoon. Its hilarious. We've never had a child soooooo into their food and its fun.

I didn't tell you about our incident on Sunday night with Matt, but it may have had something to do with my horrid day on Mon/Tues. You see Matt choked. Serious choking. Scary choking that leaves a mother screaming 'get it out'. To cut a long story short, after twice trying to do the hymlic (sp?) on Matt and it failing both times, Vonny and Mum turned him upside down and thumped him. Out popped a large piece of sausage. Start to finish it took 'around' 3 mins and he did have a little bit of air going in and out, but the noises he was making weren't nice, and towards the end his lips were starting to go blue. I was SCARED big time. I paniced and let Mum and Vonny deal with it. They are nurses, it seemed the most sensible thing to do. But I felt useless and wanted to take over. Poor Sarah and Vonny's children. They were terrified too. Sarah said to me "Mum I really think he wants you". And she was right. He gave me the biggest hug after. Funny thing was that as soon as it popped out (he saw it burst out of his mouth) he burst out laughing. I don't know what was going through his mind? Sarah still won't talk about it, but Matt and I have. And hes ok.

Thank goodness for Mum and Vonny.

I am still shaking thinking about it 3 days later.

Hey is anyone else enjoying the rain? We planted a whole heap of veges on Monday night and what good timing with all that rain! Yeah! Now we just need to get rid of it cause the humidity is shocking!

Alrighty. Time to get scrapping. Hmmmmm.

Musings

Well on the good side of things I finally finished that page I started at Nics. Jeepers. I still don't think it feels finished, but you know, for now, close enough is good enough. I was going to use it for something, but decided not to. The pink shoes on the main photo are actually cut out and stuck on with 3D tape. Looks cool IRL. So here it is:

Ok, moving right along....onto more 'stuff'. I was speaking to Andy today after having a bit of a rough time with the kids. And he made a flippant comment that no one would ever know by reading my blog. And he's right. No one knows the hard stuff, the day to day grind. And to be honest I've done that deliberately.

Honestly though, life as a Mum isn't always easy. And I don't say that lightly. I was the girl at school whose dream was to grow up and have a family. Maybe its because of this that I feel the pressure when things don't go right? I don't know? But I do know that I'm not in this alone. Most Mum's feel like this at some stage or another. Most more than once. But none of us really talk about it. We feel like failures. We feel like that other Mum is doing better than us. And that's not necessarily the case.

What I do know though is that my 3 year olds aren't much fun at the moment. They are full of cheek,  answering back, not listening, etc etc etc. And while my two are great while we are out (mostly) and that is nice - and the way I want it, when we are at home, all they do is test the boundaries. They challenge me constantly and I find that I don't really like myself all that often.

The good thing is that occassionally their old selfs come back and they are full of fun again. Then they laugh alot and chase and are always asking questions.

I've been assured that this is just a stage and they will grow out of it. My question is....WHEN?! And why on earth do people talk about the terrible twos? Jeepers they were so easy in comparison to this! LOL.

Soooooooo, anyway, I guess I just wanted to put it down in writing. That life isn't always roses, and I have bad days too.

Tommee Tippee you are my hero

Tommee Tippee have a new bottle out. The teet in is the shape of a breast and so the baby thinks its more like Mum. It is INCREDIBLE. After hours of trying to get Dan to take a 'standard' bottle, Dan took this one without any hesitation, not for one feed, but two consecutive ones. I   CAN'T   BELIEVE   IT!

This morning he took 60mls first then I ran and got more (210) so he took 270mls. Just like that! We've got a pile of breast milk in the freezer. So will use that up, then I guess get him on formula for the evening feeds. Maybe he will sleep a bit better when we make sure his tummy is full.

If you're a breast feeding Mum who wants to swap over, then go to your local supermarket and BUY THIS BOTTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Solids

Yep, my little boy has started solids. He had his first meal tonight and seemed to really enjoy it. He's been wanting this for a while now. He watches us like a hawk anytime we're eating and does all the other signs you're meant to watch for, so when he started waking up at 4am again, we decided it was time. We really wanted to hold out until 6 months, but this mother couldn't handle the lack of sleep again. After Xmas and the move and everything else, something had to give and this was it. So lets cross fingers it actually does what we hope it will and he sleeps through again.

And tonight we did some more work around the house. Down the bottom of the garden in the mangroves people have dumped their green waste so it looks a bit manky. Our neighbour has made their area into a lovely spot and we want to do something similar, but it means cleaning up first. So tonight we started pulling our all the logs/wood/sticks etc and made a wee fire where we used to have a shed. It was really fun. We even got out the wine and had a glass as the sun set. Lovely.

And a big hi to a friend who is helping me with something right now. We can do it!!!!!!!!

C U!

Heeeeelllllllllllllllllloooooooooooo

Yes, I am still here. LOL! The last few weeks have been absolutely FULL ON! I mean Xmas is big and stressful and all that stuff in itself, let alone moving and going away, etc etc etc. LOL! Everyone always tells me I don't do things by halves. Well this year they were right. LOL! So far in the last 5 weeks we have:

Brought and sold a house, moved (and unpacked just about everything! Especially my scrapping stuff!!!), had Xmas, and new years (away), built a sandpit, and a vege garden, had everyone here for Xmas and Grannys birthday, had two 'dinner parties', had sick kids and myself, I've mown the new house's lawns TWICE! (this is pretty big as I've never mown lawns before! Its soooooo cool!). Plus all the normal day to day stuff. Whew.

So, Happy new year. I hope you had a good one. We did. We spent some time at my sisters and sang singstar and played games. LOL! I even did some singing this year. Whewee! Sad thing is I seemed to be the worst there. I was sure I could sing. Obviously not. LOL!

I also spent the day before with some scrapping buddies. What a day. Nic thank you so much. It was sooo much fun. I love catching up with everyone and its especially nice that the boys can hang out too! And while Mr Tickle didn't really make an appearance my wonderful DH did get keep us entertained! In fact I may be too embarressed to ever see you ladies again! LOL! Cool thing is I even got part of a page done. And some experimenting (which didn't work! - thanks Lesley! LOL), so I have to reprint the photo before I put it up to show.

But you know it was actually really good to give something different a go, realise it wasn't going to work and change tack. Its the first bit of scrapping I've done in about 4-5 weeks and it felt good. I'm gunning to do some more asap.

Then today we had the McClunes here for Granny's birthday. It was a lovely day (but the wind was COLD!) and everyone brought something so made things much easier for us. Was great to catch up with everyone.

We decided to do something different for Grannys pressie this year and named a star after her. She will get a map with details of it, where it is etc and a bit of other stuff. Thought it was a fun thing to do.

Oh, and we had our first 'pea up the nose' tonight while eating dinner. It was so funny I couldn't help but laugh. This bright green thing totally blocking up one of Matts nostrils. Honestly. What makes kids do these things? LOL! Luckily it wasn't too far up. I caught him as he was trying to poke it up even further. So at least that saved us a trip to the hospital. JEEPERS!! And no I didn't get the camera out even though I REALLY wanted to. Didn't think it was wise to make it a 'cool' thing to do. LOL!

Now for a bit of scrapping news......if you haven't already caught up with the goss from Junkitz, go here: Stacey's blog and check out the post titled Insomnia - wait for it, they are looking for INTERNATIONALS to join their DT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!

Ok, off now. Gotta feed the littlest one. He's not been himself the last few days waking during the night and grumpy during the day. Hoping he's not coming down with something, but figure due to his size, he may need to start solids. Hmmmmmm? We'll see.

Ta ta.