We have had a nice few days with Mum and Dad staying, and have even managed a few photos!!

Mum and Dad have headed for home with Ben this afternoon, while me and the boys relax after an enjoyable morning at a friend's first birthday party.

Some recent pics

Mwah.....today....32 weeks.

Me & the boys down at the beach a few weeks ago.

I ran over a small dog or cat yesterday!!

I was on the way home from a friend's and was driving in to Coastlands when it just ran straight out in front of me.

I stopped and turned around (hoping that it had run away - cos I had NO idea what to do if I found it!)

Sure enough it had run away. Fortunately the driver behind me stopped too - he had seen it happen and confirmed that there was nothing I could have done.

Its been cold and rainy here - yuck - and my teeth are really painful because I went to the orthodontist yesterday. Hopefully by tomorrow they will be better and I can eat properly again.

I was thinking this morning how I really need to get Lachlan to take a bit more responsibility for himself. I was quite irritated that he wouldn't/couldn't put on his own shoes this morning. (He has a newish pair that he has trouble with).


Me and chicken pox boy dropped him off a pre-school this morning and headed off about our day. Just before I was due to collect Lachie, I got a call from pre-school to say that he had hit his fingernail with a hammer and split it. Ouch!! Apparently there was ooodles of blood, and, as you can imagine, a lot of pain!!


So for the first hour he was home I realised my dreams of him doing a bit more himself would have to fade away for another day! He needed me to take off his shoes, help him go to the toilet, help with his afternoon snack.....!


Anyhoo, he was in much finer fettle for the rest of the afternoon.

Who is this grubby boy?!

Well, while Fletcher has more spots than Lachlan did, he is certainly coping better. He slept all night in his own bed last night, with only an unsettled period around 10pm. I hadn't put any calamine lotion on his spots today, and they didn't appear to be bothering him.

We sent Lachie off to pre-school this morning and then did some jobs in town together (me hoping that no-one would notice the pox)!

...and we finished off the afternoon with a walk, despite the cold air. All children now snuggled up in their beds:)

Chickenpox...Round 2

Exactly two weeks to the day after Lachie starting breaking out in spots - I noticed that Fletcher was coming down with them too!!

I was lucky that Lachlan had a really mild case. The spots were mainly restricted to his tummy and back. It really only caused him discomfort for two nights and two days. So we were up at 3am watching a DVD two nights in a row!!

Fletcher so far seems to have a few more spots than Lachie did :( He slept with me last night which was a bit of a drag - he is such a noisy sleeper!!

Fortunately, I will be able to send Lachie off to pre-school tomorrow as he is immune. I wait with interest to see whether the boys have passed it on to any of their coffee group friends or the pre-school kids.

First Thing..

OK, well I realise it is not "first thing" for everyone at 7.45am!


Its a quiet Tuesday morning here - Jamie worked till late and is sleeping in, Lachie is sleeping in, and Fletcher has had his breakfast and gone back to bed with Dad!


I got up early as I expected Chelsea shortly, but I got a text to say that she is sick and staying home today.


We had a nice busy weekend - going out on Saturday night to friends, the Wintersons here for lunch after church and then the Kerrs calling in after that.


Looking forward to coffee group this morning.


Bye for now!

Afternoon Tea @ our house

Here are a few recent pictures of the kiddies....

Playing band:

Lachie has been loving doing some painting lately. He got some "Paint & Make Mighty Trucks" for his birthday, and with his water paints from Grandma, has been busy making masterpieces. He shows off his work:

Fletchie at the beach - we went down one morning a few weeks ago:

Ahhh....the house is reasonably clean and tidy and the boys are asleep....bliss.

Jamie is at work so its just me and the laundry to fold.

Thanks to Chris & Nic we are making progress on the heat pump - hopefully I will hear back from Harvey Norman tomorrow, and then possibly have it installed in the next two weeks? We shall see.

The evenings and mornings are definitely cooler so I am letting my blinds down in the living area to keep things warm and cosy.



Looking forward to Friday tomorrow!

Wednesday the 25th

Greetings from a tardy blogger.



I had my first experience of being a sort of 'mother help' on Monday. Lachlan had an outing at his pre-school so I volunteered to drive a few kids and help during the show. It was interesting to see Lachie interact with the other kids who came in our car - I don't see much of that when I drop him off and collect him.



So that was an interesting way to spend the morning - I must say I didn't particularly love the show, "Jungle Rumble" and was glad when it was time to go!!



The one good thing was that I met another of the mothers, who has just moved in across the street, so I had her round for a cup of tea after the show....



Jamie is having more stress at work regarding his trainee dog - more on that as it unfolds:)



He is having a day off today so he has just filled in the garden areas either side of the front door with soil. They look better already and hopefully some plants will follow not far behind!

Nicole's Wedding

On Wednesday this week, the lovely Nicole married the equally lovely Chris.


Regrettably, my camera battery ran out a little early in the piece. And I had checked the battery too!!!


So, these pictures are mainly for you, dear Trace - I freely admit they are not the best pics!!

Dale is:

Hiding inside from all the rain and wind outside.....

Giving the boys marmite and chip sandwiches for lunch....

Cleaning the house before Jamie gets home tonight.....

Hello!!



Well, I must say that I have been pretty slack at posting on here since the beginning of the year. I think it must been down to my new love affair with Facebook....
Apart from rambling about the weather, I have not too much to post about right now. Maybe I should make a list.....

1 Lachie went to bed last night without a nappy on, and stayed dry all night. He has been toilet trained for a year, but I could never figure out quite how to get him dry at night. I was waiting for his nappies to be dry in the morning, but I guess he was just waiting for a good excuse not to pee all night!! So we shall see how he goes tonight. He has already woken up to go to the toilet about half an hour ago.

2 I bought a dress for my sister's wedding yesterday! It is a fabulous green colour and hopefully a picture of me wearing it on Nicole's big day will make it on her at some stage!! It only took me half an hour. Now I just need to get some shoes!

3 I had a great day today, we didn't go in the car anywhere! We went for a walk in the morning (after the rain cleared) and in the afternoon I took Lachie to preschool. On the way home from preschool we stopped at the playground.

4 Fletcher has eaten dinner every night this week!! I was especially pleased how much he enjoyed his chicken stirfry tonight. (Easy on the vegetables and chicken, more into the rice!)

And, there you go, after a bit of effort, 4 items of interest on my list.

Looking forward to Friday tomorrow, maybe doing some jobs in town and reading the Friday newspaper tomorrow. I always look forward to the Friday Beacon!!!

I am sitting at my lovely dining room table and listening to Maree & Diane from Curtains & More install my lovely new roman blinds throughout the house. They look fabulous. I will try to post a picture soon.

This morning the boys had their first morning at their new pre-school. Their last day care was called "Starlights" - nice & easy to say. However, they are now at "Coastlands Early Childhood Learning Centre", so I just call it pre-school!

Lachlan pretty much disappeared to play as soon as we got there. He is in the four year olds room, but at certain periods of the day they can play wherever - which was the case at 8.30am this morning. It was very quiet when I got there - I think many of the kids come at 9am or later. Maybe their mums don't work, just send the kids in a few mornings a week? It is also much bigger (space wise) than their last centre so it just seems roomy and quieter and lots of different activities for the kids.

Fletcher had a bit of trouble calming down after I left, but then by all accounts had a fabulous time playing outside. And Lachie was very settled, chatting with the other kids and the teachers. When we collected Lachie he was working on a name tag for his cubbyhole. Me and Jamie are very pleased with the centre.

Still enjoying lots of hot weather here - you will be pleased to hear that I have been swimming every day lately!! The water is lovely. I went down at nearly 6pm last night and it was still fabulous - Jamie went down about 7.30pm.

A new house has started going up at the end of the street. And bits and bobs happening at our place - fences going up, blinds going in, levelling the section and watering to let the beach grass grow....

Yesterday and today we have had some guys in with a bobcat to level out our section and take away a couple of huge sand piles. They finished off this afternoon putting down 50ml of topsoil.



Its been a bit of a dustbowl around here the last two days because of that. No fun. Its almost worse than what we had before!! It will be really nice when there is some grass around here!!!

Also yesterday, we took the boys for a visit to their new pre-school. It is much handier because it is around the corner from our new house. It went well, and we have another visit in the pipeline tomorrow.

This afternoon, Penny from Prestige Cleaning (or some such place) came around and cleaned our shower doors for us. You know how they get all water stained and soap scummy? Well, Penny has a way of cleaning the doors (she used this big sander thingee), and then putting a special seal on them. She says I should never have to use cleaner on the doors ever again. I just need to rinse the door, squeagee and dry it after the final use of the day, and buff it up with a microfibre cloth once a week!!! You would be amazed what built up on the door after only 2 weeks of use. Anyway, it looks like brand new again.

Here are the boys after their dinner tonight, having a bit of band practice...

A few days at Whangamata

Last Thursday we went to Whangamata to spend a few days with our friends John & Moana. Fletcher enjoyed the water (yay!), Lachlan, not so much, but he did enjoy splashing in the puddles at the estuary. Here they are after Dad has bathed them after an afternoon in the water....

There was no bath, so rather than showering them, they had outdoor baths in this wee bucket!!

I spoke to Tracy quickly yesterday, and she asked me to post a few photos of the house.


I took a few of the kitchen, before we moved in. Here they are. The floors are quite dusty though, its before they had their final polish.



The orange lines are tape, to protect the skirting boards from the concrete polisher.

Things are going great. We got the washing line up on Friday, with a little help from Grandad Kerr. Not so nice going out there thought, with so much sand. Hopefully all that will be dug out this week.


Back to normal this week - work on Monday & Chelsea on Tuesday.

And hopefully I will post some more pictures soon.

Hi there!! It is my first post from Omega Place! Hmmm....looks like I need to change my blog title.


Got the phone on this morning, which means at last I can get online.


Its another amazing day here, the boys are (supposedly) sleeping and I am staying out of the sun.


I spent the morning in town yesterday and today - doing jobs. This morning I also caught up with a few friends at the beach playground.


Finally got the showers in yesterday morning and we will be able to use them tomorrow morning. Yay! The painter is also here finishing up - he says he should be done by the end of the week.


Also, as you know I look after my niece Chelsea on Tuesdays - have had last week and today off. I have told the organisation that I get paid through, that I have moved. They want to come and do a safety check!! And I have no fences!!! They were muttering something about temporary fencing......sigh........

I'm Loving it...!

Hello hello!!

Our new house is just AWESOME. We are loving it.

Unfortunately we are not yet set up for the ole phone or broadband. At the moment I am checking the email etc at King St.

Anyway, I'm sure by the end of next week it will all be up and running.


Happy New Year!!