Fletcher enjoys the slide Tuesday morning after his breakfast. Still in his PJs!

Tuesday

A super hot day here today, and swim wise the best we could manage was a sit down in the paddling pool at about 4.30pm! Lachlan and Fletcher joined me.

Lachlan spent most of the day with his grandparents, which meant I got to go out for coffee with friends (at a cafe) with only one child, which made things easier.

We FINALLY went back to the architect this afternoon to get him to make a few changes to his initial scheme plan. He asked about cladding etc too, which we have some idea about (what we want), but do feel a little out of our depth...

There was a fire in the scrub above the church this afternoon, after visiting the architect me and Jamie went for a look. They had to get a helicopter & monsoon bucket in. I'm sure the Beacon will have the full story (next week some time!! - nah, two full days should be plenty of time to get it in Friday's edition).

Monday Update

Another busy day here at 213 King St. I dropped Lachie off at Starlights this morning and then went to do some jobs in town. Mo had given me a voucher for Farmers for my birthday, which I spent on a shirt 2 weeks ago. I decided I didn't really like the shirt so I went back and exchanged it for not one, but two, hand bags! One red, one black. Anyway they were cheap as chips as the Farmers Red Dot sale was on (and I got 50% off the lowest marked price).

I ran into my friend Sarah at Farmers, she was looking for something to wear to a wedding this weekend. So I assisted her in that regard (the spirit of clothes shopping came upon me). We found a fab dress in Pagani (that store has some wee treasures - and cheap ones too). She ended up zipping over to Tauranga to get the size she needed, while I looked after her son Connor for the afternoon. So the boys enjoyed having him around here.

I dropped some clothes off at the second hand shop today. I think I drop some quite decent items off, but strangely I never see them on the racks...(mind you I don't look too hard). Only the really old stuff seems to be displayed. Just a funny thought I had..

I'm about to do some work from home and I am looking forward to coffee group tomorrow morning, which we are having at a new cafe out on the Tauranga Highway. Byee!

A Day at the Lake

We just had the most amazing weather today at the lake. It was great. It even seemed better weather at the lake than in Whakatane (which I think is rare).

Anyway we had lots of fun on the jet ski. Jason McD broke the ski biscuit on the first run of the morning, so that was a bummer. (I probably shouldn't solely blame Jason - I'm sure the biscuit was past it). But we still had the skis. I tried my hand at water skiing again. I didn't get up, but I didn't do too badly either. I think it is in my head - I don't want to get up and go for a ski yet. Hopefully soon!

Who dis cutie?

Lachie got a wasp sting but he was over it pretty quickly. I think I overdid it a bit and put him in the water to cool his hand down and he was screaming his head off - but that was fear of the water and not the sting! He has not made a peep about it (the sting) all afternoon. We got his life jacket so he went for a ride on the jet ski but not for a swim or anything. We need Ben & Zac around to get him all excited about it! I tried to take Fletcher in the water too but he wasn't that keen either. I think it may have been the temperature.

Jamie has had super action man day. He got up at 5.30am to go mountain biking in the Redwoods at Rotorua with Jason & Isaac before we all met at the lake. Then he was towing everyone around skiing etc. So it will be an early night (and back to work tomorrow).

I'll leave you with some pictures of my boys

Notice I always seem to take pictures of Fletcher in his high chair??

Lachie loves sitting on the jet ski. We have bought him a life jacket which we pick up tomorrow. Hopefully he will have some fun on it tomorrow and hopefully the weather is as good as today!

Introducing...

...police dog CRUZ:

OK, so we have just been totally blessed with this. Basically trainee police dog UDOLF was not quite working out. I think there is some hope for him yet, but he needs more time. However, I think 'they' (the bosses) just want Jamie on the street working. So there was a 'spare' police dog - Cruz - floating around and he has been given to Jamie. They will do one final course together and be operational. This is going to save us the stress of training another police dog which could take a year. So, praise God!

Cruz is a very cool dog and you can tell he is operational (yes he has been working with other handlers over the country). So lovely and obedient!

AND AT LAST - a decent name for our dog!!

Back to Normal

Its sort of back to normal around here, back in routine. Jamie went to work on Monday and Lachie went back to Starlights for his Monday morning.

Then today I went back to work and Fletcher went to Starlights too.

I found out that I got an awesome Christmas present from the partners at work - a very generous gift voucher from Body & Soul ("Advanced Skin & body therapy") - so there will be a few pedicures in the pipeline for me! Yippee! (I wasn't at work the last day before Christmas when they gave them out, so I got it today).

Work was good and I have plenty more to do at home.

Introducing...

Our shiny new jet ski!
Its been a busy day! We decided Thursday afternoon to go ahead with the purchase of a jet ski. So Friday night we drove up to Lake Rotoma and left the children with Grandad & Nana. We zipped up to Auckland, arriving at about 10pm, and stayed with the lovely Stephanie!

This morning we went and picked up the jet ski from Bryce & Debbie in Greenhithe. It was a long trip back to the Lake, but we got there with plenty of time to go and give it a blast!

We are looking forward to lots of summer fun with family & friends!


The ski is a 1998 Seadoo GSX.

Its just been a quiet couple of days around here really.

I got up this morning at 6.30am and went for an hour long walk. It was a great way to start the day! Especially as it is already quite warm at that hour.

We've been looking at jet skis on Trade Me over the last few days....we'll see what comes of that!

My lovely boys enjoy their breakfast this morning. Fletcher had a haircut from Auntie Sarah yesterday, mainly around the ears, and doesn't he look lovely?

Dolf and Lachie enjoy a bit of time on the trampoline together.

Happy New Year

We have had a great run of weather ever since Boxing Day. Jamie got home just before 5am from work. Then at about 11am we went over to the beach, where a whole bunch of others from church also were.

These pictures were taken late this afternoon, we went back to the beach for an icecream.

New Year's Eve..

...and I am at home blogging! Tragic.

Jamie is at work - we have never, as far as I can recall, had a New Year's Eve together in all the time we've been together. Oh actually, he was home by 8pm last year, but we just went to bed early.

After dinner the boys spent an hour outside playing on the trampoline and the slide and the water table while I hovered close by. I just put them to bed - haven't heard a peep so they must be whacked - and then ate too much chocolate icecream!

And now to tidy up my kitchen.

Happy New Year everyone

At the Lake..

Yes, the two in one day. Martin & Jamie ran from Whakatane over to Ohope today, through that bushwalk. So me and the boys and Sarah and her boys drove over to the beach to pick them up. We spent a bit of time at the playground there.

In the afternoon us Kerrs drove up to Lake Rotoiti to catch up with some friends Jamie used to work with. Lachie had a spin in the boat!

At the Beach..

Our Boxing Day was pretty quiet, but the fun began at 5.30pm when we went around to 126 James Street for a BBQ (also with Dean & Gaynoll).

We had a great time over dinner and a game of Trivial Pursuit. Lachie was still awake at 10pm, so both he and Fletcher are now having an afternoon sleep.

This morning I've been to get a haircut (God Bless my hairdresser, I always seem to get an appointment about half an hour after I phone up) and then some friends from Auckland called in to visit this morning.

And the weather is at last lovely blue sky!

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Lachlan opens his new airplanes & helicopters. He took them to Christmas Service this morning and he didn't want them opened for ages. He's in bed now, tired out from a very busy day!

Zac opens his new Veggie Tales DVD. The boys then watched it!

Ben opens his new Nike shin guards for soccer next year....

and models them.

Fletcher received (from Wintersons) a Fisher Price toy called "Roberto" and his tractor and associated construction stuff. He & Lachie have already enjoyed playing with it on Christmas morning.

Lachie opens his Christmas gift from the Wintersons. Everyone looks pretty excited, don't they?! Its great, Ben & Zac have taught Lachie to be excited about presents! He received a great "Thomas Build Me" game.

One great thing about our house is that it has a great back yard and a lovely big silk tree for shade. So today after church we had Sarah & Andy, Abby & Grant around for lunch. We sat outside all afternoon at our picnic table, it was great.

We have people around for dinner shortly. I should go and make a salad or something.

Busy day tomorrow getting what we need for Christmas Day!

Home Again

We decided to try driving home from Havelock North in the morning, rather than the evening. So we left Mum & Dad's at 9.30am this morning. We managed to do the whole trip without any stops, and were safely home by 1pm. The boys ate on the way and slept for an hour or so. They were pleased to be home to their own toys.

Both me and Jamie went out and did jobs this afternoon and Lachie enjoyed playing with his cousins.

Last night of course, we got to enjoy the 6.8 richter scale earthquake that was mainly focused on Gisborne. Of course Napier isn't too far away from Gisborne and so we felt it a treat. It was rolling and just went on and on and on and on!

A Saturday with jobs like laundry and lawnmowing is ahead!

Unfortunately, the rain has been coming down for the last few days. So that dashed my hopes of going swimming or getting out and about much.

Went for a drive with Mum and the boys this morning looking at all the new housess in the neighborhood.

Picking up Jamie from the airport this afternoon!

H a v e l o c k

We arrived at Mum & Dad's at 10pm last night. We find night is the best time to travel for the boys and we don't have to make any stops. I imagine though they will be pretty whacked today. Fletcher has already gone down for his morning sleep and it is only 9am!

Taking Jamie to the airport soon, he is going to spend a few days in Wellington with friends he went to Police College with.

More later!

ps. It is such a hot day here already!

Here are my cutie-pies sitting at their little table tonight, just finishing up a bit of dinner. Fletcher was trying to steal Lachie's garlic bread so I gave him a slice of his own. Fletcher has been doing a bit of walking today - not too far though. It would be great if he acquired the skill by Christmas!

Welcome...

...to my new look site. It was time for a bit of a change and I hope you like it.

After a period of prolonged silence from Lachlan on Thursday morning, I went in to my room to find he had gotten into my lipstick. Silly mother that I am, I didn't rant and rave, I just said: "Can I take your picture?". And then after I had taken the picture I told him he was NEVER to get into my things again! He actually did a pretty good job on the top lip, don't you think? Considering he had no mirror....

Later in the day I dropped Lachie at Zoe's house, and Fletcher at Connor's while I went to a work lunch at Roquette Restaurant. What a treat! And I was the first to order dessert.

This morning we went to the park with Auntie Sarah and Zac - what a lovely hot day it was! It was good to get out of the house as Jamie worked a night shift so was trying to sleep. It is just impossible to keep the boys quiet so its best to leave! We had a fun morning.

At 1pm today we went and watched a Police Dog Display at the Intermediate School. Unfortunately Mum, I didn't take my camera. It was good fun - quite brief today. Jamie was the villain - next time he'll be showing off his handling skills!

The Winterson boys were here for dinner tonight and then down to bed in our room while Martin & Sarah went out for dinner. All the boys had a wonderful time playing together.

I'll leave you with a shot of Fletchie after he woke up from a wee nap today. Look at the curly hair! He's been a bit of a grump the last few days with a big fat molar coming through.

Wednesday

It was our first night in our house last night (Monday night we stayed at Ian & Christina's - to give the house time to dry out). Jamie was back to work and so was I for the morning.

I finished up work a little earlier so I could run to the supermarket. I needed to do some cleaning while the boys were asleep and I had no cleaning supplies! I can't go after Starlights because Fletcher needs to come straight home for a sleep. Here's my little sweetie showing his dexterity. He enjoyed himself this afternoon walking around behind the doll's pram.

And here is me and Lachie tonight after we read a story.

Now on to the Cool Stuff

We picked up our first concept plan from the architect last Friday. Here is a picture. I hope you will be able to click on the picture for a larger image and hopefully zoom in. We are pretty pleased with it but will probably make a few changes - mainly just to the size of the living area. We would welcome all your input!

Our New Pad...A Novel

Yesterday, Monday 10 December, I arrived about 9am - Jamie had arrived a little earlier and had gone to get the moving truck. Just after I got here he arrived with the first load of furniture.

And now let me tell you about said house. I think we'll start with a "Good" list and a "Bad" list:

Bad:
~~Mouldy walls and ceilings
~~Some mouldy patches on the really old carpet that should probably be just pulled up
~~The previous tenants had been told commercial cleaners were coming in. Unfortunately they weren't told the commercial cleaners were only employed to clean the carpet and walls. So they just packed up and left. Oven sprayed, but not cleaned, dirty cupboards, dirty toilet, dirty bathroom.......
~~Smells not soooo good - because of the carpets being cleaned (least I hope that's the reason) - but hopefully we have improved that running 3 de humidifiers over the last two days. You know how some families have a funny smell? I hope we don't turn into the Smelly Kerrs!! I've been praying the fragrance of Christ will permeate the rooms!
~~The windows need repainting (here's an example) - one window has practically no paint and is rotting..mmmm lovely

~~The rubbish that Jamie picked up from around the section that will be removed tomorrow.
Here's a pic:

But, we are very thankful for the opportunity to live here, so now I will list the good:

Good:
~~Its a wee bit bigger than James St. The computer fits in the lounge. And the kids room is really big.
~~It has a great fenced back yard for the kids to play in.
~~The bathroom has only a shower over the bath and a sink - my cleaning is much reduced!
~~The neighbour came over to say hi tonight and commiserate - her house is much the same - and she says we can use their trampoline any time we like.

Jamie has already been doing some trimming of overgrown bushes and he is outside now doing the edges before mowing the lawn. Hopefully we will be the best gosh darn tenants this house has ever seen!

Our Move & a Week at Lake Rotoma

Well I guess you could say that our move went pretty smoothly. We moved out all the furniture on Wednesday the 28th and spent that night up at Lake Rotoma. Thursday morning Jamie came back over to get a head start on the cleaning. Lachie had some tummy issues that day so I stayed at the lake until about 12pm, before coming over to give a helping hand. In the end Sarah came over and gave us an hour of her time to help us clean up. Martin was also very helpful the day before, bringing Jamie & Millsy morning tea and also mowing our lawn for us.

We had dinner with John and Moana and then headed off to the Lake - at 40 minute trip (nothing to big city folk of course).

Jamie had that Friday off and I came back to Whakatane to go to work.

We had an enjoyable week at Lake Rotoma but we were glad that was all it was, a week. I came over for stuff like coffee group and work, but actually did pretty well not coming over every day. Still used lots of gas!

Last Transmission before we move!

Hey y'all. As you know settlement date for our house is this Friday the 30th. So we have decided we will be out by Wednesday afternoon so that we can clean on Thursday, and be ready to hand over the keys at any time on Friday.

And there are still plenty of more boxes to pack!

We can't move in to our rental at 213 King Street until about the 10th of December. So our temporary residence will be with Jamie's parents at Lake Rotoma.



It was an amazing hot day today. I went out to the Berry Farm this afternoon with Sarah and Zac and my boys, and then Zac came to play here.

So not sure when my next update will be!

We've been out to the section this morning. We met an architect and an engineer out there. The engineer because we were wondering whether we had to do masses of costly retaining, but he seemed to think we would be fine.

As for the architect - we need something specially drawn up for the site. We have had two building companies go and have a look, but then they just go through their standard plans and see what will fit on. And for the size of the section (566m2) compared to the size of house we want (approx 200m2) its a bit tricky! So we met with Martin Jackson who is going to give us a quote before he comes up with some scheme plans. Me and Jamie were very impressed with him and have a feeling he will come up with something pretty fantastic.

A friend of mine built a few years ago and they just picked a plan they liked, which was then plonked on the section with no regard to facing north, etc. We don't want that!

Jamie is just mowing the lawns before he goes to work this afternoon. We have to be out of our house in a week and we have packed two boxes! Still don't know when we can move to our rental in King St..

This was the sight that awaited me when I walked into the bathroom the other day - my boys brushing their teeth! Lachie has a bit of an obsession with toothpaste, I guess he thinks its quite tasty. After dinner mints would probably be a good snack option for him!


Anyway aren't they cute? The picture is a bit dark though. I am buying two calendars through Starlights which feature their hand prints.

Fletcher is growing so quickly!

Sunday morning was a bit different - Jamie went off to run in the annual Toi's Challenge. I went to church with the boys, but not for very long. At about 10.30am we went down to Rugby Park to see Jamie finish up the race. He did a very respectable 1 hr 56 min.

After the boys had their 'naps', we called down to 126 James Street. Here is Fletcher showing us his skills behind Ben's trolley. Remember when Ben was pushing it around?!

Then we all zipped out to Coastlands to show Martin & Sarah our section, and then on to the Berry Farm for an icecream. A great way to spend Sunday afternoon!

Anyone got an idea what I could re-name my blog? Leave a comment or email me!

Well I am sure you will enjoy the pictures that follow. I copied this pic of me Sarah Nic and Dad off Mum's blog. It was taken last Thursday the 8th of November, yes, MY 30TH BIRTHDAY. Happy birthday to me. We had a nice lunch together at Sarah's on Thurs and then on Saturday went with some friends to Roquette Restaurant for lunch.

This afternoon me and the boys had a lovely time in the back yard, playing on the swing and slide, playing with the ball and motoring around in the little red cart. Isn't Fletcher adorable?

Today we signed a contract to purchase a section at Omega Place, Coastlands.

Here is a shot of the 'beach access' sign at the end of the street. And the walkway is completed concreted. How marvellous.

This is a view of the street from the beach end. Our section is up the back on the right, if you look very carefully you can see a "Ray White" real estate sign on it. Will let you know how things progress.

After church on Sunday and after the boys had had 'naps' we drove over to the beach for an icy treat.

Lachlan pretends to be grumpy

Fletcher on his First Birthday!

Isn't he lovely? I must say I am taking lots of pictures of him lately because of his cuteness. I'm pleased about that 'cos they say the second child doesn't have nearly as many photos as the first.
As for the day, we had coffee group as usual with all his wee friends - although he did sleep through much of the party! Then at 12.3opm we picked up Grandma from the airport to spend a few days in Whakatane!

Yipee, my computer is back in AKSHON!

The computer guy took it Tuesday and it was back today (Friday) afternoon. Not bad. He replaced the video card and installed some ethernet thingee. Which is great because surfing the net is so much better - I used to connect using the USB thingee, which wasn't very reliable.

This morning I dropped my boys and their great-grandfather at Ann's place, and went to the Home and Garden show in Rotorua. It was OK - nothing to write home about though. And then I went and bought a new skirt from the House of G. A denim one - perfect for summer!

The other news is that our house went unconditional yesterday (Thursday)! Yay. We got a nice hamper from Harcourts for our trouble. I have already eaten the chocolate! And so the purchase of a section begins in earnest....

Have a good weekend everyone. I shall try and take some pictures and post them soon.

PS. I have now been blogging for one year!